DMK’s plea delayed civic polls: Velumani

Replying to a query, Velumani said, “State government, under late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, did all the preliminary works for the local body elections and the State was gearing up for it. But it was DMK that filed a petition regarding quota for Scheduled Tribes. The court later struck down DMK’s plea stating that the reservation policy followed by the State government was right. However, the petition is pending in Supreme Court due to which local body elections could not be conducted.”

When the bill seeking to extend the time of special officers in local bodies was moved in the assembly, DMK MLA B Ranganathan of Villivakkam constituency objected it. He stated that due to absence of representatives in local bodies, many of the welfare schemes could not be implemented and government with vested interests was not conducting elections for local bodies.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami replied that local body elections should be conducted by State Election Commission which is an autonomous body and the government cannot interfere in the functioning of the commission.

Velumani replied that works for preparing electoral roll is under way and the government had completed delimitation exercise after 22 years. Soon, the State will face the local body elections, he added.