Telangana govt must submit GHMC poll dates: HC

The much publicized elections to the GHMC in the Telangana state is still 249 days away, if the GHMC is to be believed.

That is the response of the GMC to the query of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday when it was asked to submit the schedule for elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) within a week. However the TS Government has blamed it on the delay in bifurcation process and the delimitation of the municipal wards.

The court was hearing a petition by M. Padmanabha Reddy of the Forum for Good Governance challenging the delay in GHMC elections even after the expiry of its term and continuing the civic body’s administration through a special officer.

The GHMC commissioner filed an affidavit stating that for carrying out delimitation of wards in GHMC, 147 days are required and that thereafter, another 102 days is required for notifying reserved vacancies. The GHMC elections can be held only after the 249 days. But court wanted the TS government and not GHMC to respond

Telangana advocate-general K. Ramakrishna Reddy submitted that the delay in the delimitation of wards and identifying of reserved wards was due to non-allotment of officers to both the states by the Centre after bifurcation. He said the Centre had recently completed the final allotment and the government was initiating the process of delimitation of wards in accordance with the 2011 Census. He urged the bench to grant four months to hold elections.

The bench took exception to the counter affidavit by the GHMC commissioner and said, “We directed the government to file the counter. How can the commissioner file the affidavit when his appointment is in question in the petition?” While directing the advocate-general to file the schedule by next Monday, the bench made it clear that if the government fails to come out with a specific time frame to hold the election as the court will pronounce its orders on that day.