State Election Commission begins to prepare rolls for civic polls

According to the government order, “In excise of the powers conferred under rule 11,14,18 and 20 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Election) Rules, 1995, The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission hear by directs that the polling stations for the purpose of conducting should be provided in the form of handbooks.”

The previous local body elections in the state was conducted in October 2011 and the next election should have been held in October 2016, but as late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, was in hospital the election was deferred initially by six months but due to political uncertainty in the state, local body elections were not conducted in the state, till date.

In the meantime, DMK filed a petition in Madras High Court and now the petition is pending in the Supreme Court. There were reports that the local body elections would be conducted after the Lok Sabha elections and state Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar too confirmed the development, earlier.

Going by the reports, the State Election Commission had announced its first step towards conducting local body polls. Accordingly, the instructions for identifying the polling stations and displaying the electoral rolls were notified to the officials.

“The approved list of polling stations shall be published by the Returning Officer (RO) at the office of district election officer, district panchayat office, office of block development officer, village panchayat office and such other places as the RO considers necessary,” read the GO.

The GO also stated that the electoral roll to be published should be prepared and printed in Tamil and also in other languages, if necessary. “The electoral roll shall have the sketch of the polling area enclosed,” read the GO.

The GO also has instructions on the number of copies of electoral rolls to be printed and the number of copies to be distributed to the recognised political parties.

However, sources in Secretariat said that the process of notifying the procedures of local body elections is just to file counter at the Supreme Court and the elections may be delayed by another six months.