HUBBALLI: In the wake of the high court’s observation, wherein both the state government and the Election Commission were asked to expedite the process to hold elections to urban local bodies in North Karnataka, the authorities concerned have kickstarted the process to for the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) polls.
However, there is much work that needs to be completed before the election to HDMC can get under way. Publishing of the list of newly delimited wards, the reservation matrix for the seats in view of the decree that mandates that half the seats be allotted to women are among the preliminary processes that need to be finished before the notification is issued for the polls. Experts fear that these processes will take at least six months.
As per the court’s direction, ward delimitation, reservation for the wards and preparing voters list is completed in the stipulated time then it will take at least six months says experts.
Those who were waiting to contest Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) elections have to wait at least for another seven to eight months, they say.
Although HDMC officials completed the delimitation process in 2017, there were those who were unhappy with the new list of wards and moved the court, questioning the manner in which the wards had been divided and pointing out flaws in the method followed.
As part of the exercise, the number of wards in the HDMC Council had been increased from the existing 67 to 82. However, activists and stakeholders pointed out that the wards had not been demarcated on geographical basis, and moved the court. The then deputy commissioner Deepa Cholan had recorded the statements of the litigants in February.
Congress leader Nagaraj Gouri, on the other hand, had filed a public interest litigation seeking directions from the court to hold elections at the earliest.
Former mayor Veeranna Savadi, while welcoming the court’s orders, expressed concerns over the possibility of the process being deferred again if litigants moved the court opposing the reservation matrix. “The government needs to find a solution to avoid such problems,” the former mayor said.