Panchayat and municipal elections in Jammu and Kashmir are “extremely unlikely” to take place before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as the Centre is yet to amend the law for extending reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies, a senior official said.
Although the Administrative Council headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has taken a decision for extending the benefit of reservation to OBCs in panchayats and municipal bodies, the Centre will have to either pass an ordinance or bring a bill in Parliament for it.
“It is extremely unlikely that the panchayat polls will be held before the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Besides amending the act, the quantum of reservation has also to be decided,” State Election Commissioner B R Sharma told PTI.
Lok Sabha elections are due in April-May.
Sharma said the commission was performing its statutory duty of revising and updating the electoral rolls in the Union territory.
According to officials, besides the issues related to OBC reservation, the commission will have to wait till the wards to be reserved are identified.
The other major task likely to be carried out before holding the panchayat and municipal polls will be delimitation of the wards to address the skewed distribution of electors.
The housing and urban development department is actively pursuing a communication from the office of the chief electoral officer, which, among other things, suggested transfer of mandate to conduct the municipal electoral processes to the State Election Commission (SEC) in accordance with constitutional provisions.