Hyderabad: Though the High Court had asked the State Election Commission and the Telangana government to complete the poll process to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) by the end of January 2016, the pending legal cases and the row over voters list could cause further delays.
The HC has reserved its decision on four petitions moved by Congress and the BJP leaders and two others against the government retaining the number of wards of the GHMC at 150, reversing its earlier decision to enhance the number of wards to 200.
Another petition filed by the Forum for Better Hyderabad seeking to hold the elections early is also pending final adjudication. Mr K. Lakshman, a petitioner in the case, said the delimitation of 150 wards was done in a haphazard manner. When the government had decided to increase the number of wards to 200, it followed due procedure by identifying the natural boundaries of each ward in accordance with the process contained in GO Ms No. 570 dated November 6, 1996.
When the government decided to go with 150 wards, it failed to follow the procedure citing shortage of manpower, he said.
“If the government is not able to find the natural boundaries for the delimitation of wards, the GO suggested that the town survey numbers, important junctions and lanes can be the landmarks for delimitation. Unfortunately the GHMC failed in following the procedure and that is why we have moved court,” Mr Lakshman said.
Mr Sivaraju Srinivas, counsel for the Forum for Better Hyderabad, which is seeking early elections, said that according to the 2011 Census the GHMC should have at least 175 wards. The GHMC in its defence says that it has followed procedure and invited objections and suggestions from the people and issued the preliminary notification.
Civic body can’t reserve wards till list scrutiny
The alleged deletion of names of lakhs of voters could create a hurdle for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation as it seeks to mark the reserved wards SC, ST, BCs and women to go ahead.
Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy, BJP senior leader Indrasena Reddy and several associations belonging to the Backward Classes (BCs) had lodged complaints with the Election Commission (EC) against the alleged mass deletion of voter names. They complained that more than 22 lakh names of voters had been deleted, out of whom 7.5 lakh were BCs. The EC has initiated a verification process.
Legal experts say that the GHMC will not be able to go ahead with the process of reserving wards till the EC completes verification of the voters list.
Challa Damodar Reddy, former standing counsel of the GHMC, said conducting door-to-door surveys for identification of BC, SC, ST and women voters is mandatory before notifying the reservation of wards. But that cannot be done without the voter list cleared by the EC.
He said that after conducting the survey, the GHMC has to prepare ward-wise and polling station-wise electoral rolls, publish the ward-wise final electoral rolls with BC voters. Only after this can reserved seats for SCs, STs, BCs and women can be published. Advocate K. Lakshman, who is dealing with a petition on the GHMC elections, said, “We cannot rule out the possibility of the aggrieved parties moving court after the notification of reservation of wards.”
Mr Srinivas said that as per the undertaken given by the state government and the GHMC, the pre-poll process has to be completed by December 15. Thereafter, 45 days are required for the State EC to complete the poll process.
BCs call for re-enumeration
The enumeration of BC voters found that in Charminar, Bahadurpura, Goshamahal there were just 10.6 per cent members from the community.
BC organisations have demanded a re-enumeration to rectify the anomalies. They are questioning the sudden fall, given that the population of BCs has increased and lakhs of new voters got enrolled during the last six years. They allege a conspiracy to deny reservations for BCs and convert the reserved wards into the general quota.
“In 2009, when the BC voters survey was done, their percentage was put at 26 per cent, which itself was wrong. At that time, Muslims were not added under BC-E quota. Now Muslims have been added, and their population comprises around 16 per cent in the GHMC limits.
Despite all this, the number of BC voters fell by 5 per cent over 2009, which clearly shows how flawed the enumeration was,” said Mr R. Krishnaiah, president, BC Welfare Association and LB Nagar legislator. GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy said enumeration staff were asked to re-visit the households where abnormal variations were found and were given two more days.
“This is nothing but a conspiracy by some vested interests to convert BC wards into general category, where they face unfavourable political conditions. All the surveys being done since 1986 put the BC population at 34 per cent. Even the TS government’s intensive household survey found the BC population at 52 per cent. How is it possible that BC voters decreased from 26 per cent to 21 per cent now,” Mr Krishnaiah asked. BC organisations are also planning to move HC.
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