State election body making foolproof preparations

State Election Commission officials are visiting district to review the arrangements to conduct polls to Gram Panchayats, ward members, Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies and Mandal Parishad Territorial constituencies

Hyderabad: The State Election Commission (SEC) is making preparations for holding elections to local bodies. The exercise is expected to be completed by May-end next year.

Officials of the Commission are visiting the districts and reviewing the preparedness of the official machinery for holding the elections. The SEC officials have directed the District Collectors to ensure that an adequate number of employees are deployed for the polls. The officials are also working out details regarding the number of polling booths and ballot boxes, besides other material.

The term of the present local bodies - Zilla Parishads, Mandal Parishads and Gram Panchayats will come to an end by August next year. The SEC has set the target to complete the exercise by May-end, but it may be delayed, the officials said.

The SEC has already directed the officials in the district to revise the electoral rolls. The exercise is expected to be completed in three months. Then, the revised rolls would be made available for public to file claims and objections in the second week of March, the officials said.

According to the schedule, delimitation of wards should be completed by December 31, preparation and publication of Gram Panchayat electoral rolls should be completed by March 15, 2018, finalisation of reservations has to be done by April 16, 2018, preparation and publication of polling stations should be completed by April 17, 2018.

As many as 1.50 crore voters in village will elect sarpanches, MPTCs and ZPTCs. Election will be held to 8,778 sarpanch posts and 88,600 ward members, besides 600 ZPTCs posts and 5,000 MPTCs.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to create between 2,000 and 2,500-gram panchayats. The total number of panchayats will go up 11,000.