With an eye on 2017 state assembly elections the UP government in a potentially controversial decision has decided to have two set of rules for reservation for the SC, ST and OBCs for the two tiers of the panchayat bodies—the block development committee members and members district panchyayat. The basis for the reservation for SC, ST is the family while for the OBCs the data of population obtained from the rapid survey.
Making the reservation conundrum further complicated the government wants to have another set of rules of reservation for the primary tier of the panchayatraj—over 59,000 posts of village pradhan. The state government has already deferred the process of reservation for all the three categories till further orders—thus postponing the elections. The reservation rules for village pradhan are proposed to be amended and then the process of election will commence.
Two set of rules have stirred a hornet’s nest as the reservation in several West UP district has exceeded 50 percent cap. The Panchayatraj department is flooded with claims and objections against the reservation of seats and wards from across the state. The issuance of election notification is likely to be delayed as its now clear that the panchayat department will miss the deadline of September 15 for completing the process of reservation and allotment of wards for the block development committee and district panchayat members. The poll notification was expected to be issued onSeptember 13.
The state government exercising power under rules for reservation of seats and allotment of wards for Village panchayat, block development committees and district panchayat had issued orders on August 11. Following the pressure mounted by the ruling party legislators and party leaders, the state government without assigning any reason issued another order on September 5, deferring the reservation and allotment of seats for the village panchyats till further orders.
The opposition parties alleged that the state government is manipulating the reservation with the aim of getting the maximum number of OBCs candidates affiliated to the ruling party elected in all the three tiers of panchayatr institutions.
This is happening for the first time ever since the 73rdconstitution amendment in 1992. The forthcoming Panchayat election will be the fifth election after the constitution was amended for empowering the panchayat institution.
The BJP taking exception to the alleged irregularities in panchayat elections has questioned the rationale of deferring the election of the village pradhan. ``The SP government is indulging in irregularities in panchayat elections in a big way, be it the revision of rolls, delimitation or the reservation of posts. If the Samajwadi party wants to win the panchayat election without contesting it then instead of conducting the tiresome and costly process of holding elections, the SP led state government should nominated its own leaders and supporters in all three tiers of the panchayat bodies’’, said HN Dikshit, leader of the BJP in state legislative council.
The director Panchayatraj department Udayvir Singh Yadav admitted two different parameters for reservation for SC and OBCs for the post of block development committee members and member’s district panchayat. He said the reservation of seats will be within the maximum cap of 50 percent.