Courtesy NRC, civic polls pushed back again

GUWAHATI: With many of its employees engaged in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updating process, election authorities may have to postpone the civic polls for the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) again. The polls, due for over a year, was last held in 2013.
Since the dissolution of municipality in July last year, most government officials have been involved in the NRC process because of which, the state government does not have enough manpower to conduct the civic polls, Assam State Election Commission (ASEC) sources said adding that the electoral rolls for conducting the election is yet to be readied. The sources added the elections can only be held after September courtesy the delay.
Speaking on the delay, state election commissioner HN Bora said, “As per the rules, the preparations for the election should be done before the five year tenure of the elected body is completed. Tentatively, we decided to conduct the elections within July last year itself. However, the publication of the draft NRC compelled us to postpone it. Then came the floods and the panchayat elections which had to be held by the end of 2018 as the court had ordered so.”
Although a schedule for preparation of electoral rolls was notified earlier, prolonged engagement of government officials in NRC works has been the biggest obstacle for the election commission. “The Kamrup (Metropolitan) district administration has expressed its inability to engage officials for the election till the NRC process is over. If law and order situation remains normal, we should be able to conduct the GMC elections after the publication of the final NRC,” Bora added.
People of Guwahati are also frustrated as they feel that most developmental work is stalled because the elections keep getting delayed. “Elected representatives play a big role in raising the civic issues that concern the public. It’s unfortunate that for more than a year, we don’t have elected councillors in GMC. The key linkage between bureaucrats and commoners is missing in Guwahati,” Ajay Dutta, Padmashree awardee social activist, said.
Sources in GMC said delimitation of the municipal wards to streamline its areas is a major task before polls but that cannot be done with the existing strength. GMC is likely to send a proposal to the state government for increasing the number of wards from 31 to 60.