Quota list submission holds key to PR polls : SEC chief

Poll preparedness of RR and Nalgonda districts reviewedA

Hyderabad : State Election Commissioner P Ramakanth Reddy on Tuesday said that Panchayat Raj election process would be completed within 17 days after the State government submitted the category-wise reservation list to the election body.

He said if the Panchayat Raj, MPTC and ZPTC elections were held in June and July, municipal elections could be held in August. Reddy reviewed the poll preparedness of Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts at a meeting held here on Tuesday. Collector, Joint Collector, Superintendent of Police (SP) and senior officials of both the districts attended the meeting. Later addressing a press conference, the State election body chief informed that the Panchayat elections would be held in three phases while MPTC and ZPTC polls would be completed in two phases.

He pointed out that the Election Commission had conducted similar meetings in various districts and decided to constitute a three-member committee comprising Tahsildar, MPDO and SHO to identify the sensitive and most sensitive polling areas. Replying to a query, Ramakanth Reddy had stated that reservation list would be prepared based on 2011 census figures only.

Meanwhile, Panchayat Raj Commissioner Ramgopal has informed that gazette notification containing reservations of SCs, STs and BCs was likely to be released by this month end. He pointed out that instructions were given to district officials to submit category-wise reservation by May 18.