The General Elections may have ended this year but the clock is still ticking here in Uttarakhand. The district administrations of all the districts of the State except, Haridwar, are gearing themselves for conducting the three-tier panchayat polls. The panchayat polls in 12 districts of the State would be held in three stages on June 18, 21 and 24.
The State Election Commission had issued notification for the panchayat election on May 27 and it directed all the district magistrates and District election officers to issue the dates of elections at their end on May 28. On Thursday the District Magistrate of Dehradun BVRC Purushottam reviewed the preparations and appointed officer in charges for these polls.
The elections in 12 districts, 89 blocks and 7,657 village panchayats would be held in three stages and an electorate of 46,94,689 (23,13,900 female voters and 23,77,103 male voters ) would exercise their franchise to elect 49,337 members of village panchayats, 7,657 village pradhans, 3,054 members of block panchayats and 389 members of the district panchayat. The process for nomination would start on June 2 and would end on June 5, the scrutiny of the nomination papers would take place on June 6, 7 and 9, while June 10 has been finalised as the date for withdrawal of nomination papers. The Commission would allot the symbols to the contesting candidates on June 11 and the counting process for all three stages would start on June 27.
For streamlining the election process and to optimum utilisation of the available resources at its disposal the Election Commission has decided to hold elections in three stages.