The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday conveyed to the Supreme Court its inability to conduct local body elections due to lack of district officials, who are engaged with the Lok Sabha poll.

The State informed the court about the State Election Commission’s suggestion to hold the elections after three months.

The local body elections have not been held from 2016. The Madras High Court had directed the holding of the polls by May 31.

In its reply affidavit, the Tamil Nadu government said it had never shied from its constitutional responsibilities.

The reason for not conducting the polls since 2016 was a necessary corollary of the need for delimitation of wards, according to the 2011 Census.

The Commission has, according to the State, said there had been a delay in getting soft copies of the current electoral roll from the Election Commission of India to be handed over to the National Informatics Centre. Lack of district administration machinery due to the general elections was cited as another reason.

The Delimitation Commission has already submitted for government approval its recommendations for reservation of newly delimited wards for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Woman based on the 2011 Census.

Refutes claims

The State denied claims by advocate Jaya Sukin that lack of local body representatives had crippled development works in rural Tamil Nadu.

The government said it had appointed Block Development Officers as special officers of village panchayats for uninterrupted discharge of civic maintenance responsibilities under the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1994.

It clarified that ample funds had been released to village panchayats on time for carrying out civic works.