Governor Banwarilal Purohit has promulgated an Ordinance to extend the term of the special officers of town panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations, which expired on June 30, by another six months till December 31 this year, since the urban local body elections for these nine districts could not be held due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Though the delimitation of territorial wards of town panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations in the nine newly reconstituted districts — Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Tirupattur, Ranipet, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi — were “under active process”, following the order of the Supreme Court in December last year, the outbreak of COVID-19 had led to a lockdown.
According to an official release, the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) initiated the preparation of local body electoral rolls, identification of polling stations, training for handling electronic voting machines, among others, soon after the Supreme Court’s orders. “In the meantime, due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, lockdown has been declared by the Central and State governments. The entire machinery of the government is engaged in taking preventive, protective, relief and welfare measures on a war footing, to mitigate the suffering of the people. Hence, the TNSEC is not in a position to conduct the urban local body elections,” it said.
Since the term of office of the special officers expired on June 30, the government decided to amend the laws so as to extend the tenure for a period of six months up to December 31 this year. “Accordingly, as per the recommendation of the Chief Minister, the Governor has promulgated the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 on June 30,” it added.