Intensified Preparations for 'Panchayat' Election

Gadwal: The stage is set for the upcoming Gram Panchayat elections, with the election drumroll expected to begin soon. Following recent instructions from Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on the conduct of local elections, the administrative machinery has begun its preparations. The groundwork for the Panchayat elections has already started, with the government focusing primarily on the division of wards, a crucial aspect of the election process.

Officials have been directed to prepare voter lists ward-wise for Gram Panchayats across all districts in the state. Recently, district project managers and computer operators underwent trainin

The government has decided to base the division of wards on the voter list from the recent Parliamentary elections. A letter has been sent to the Election Commission requesting the Parliamentary voter list, categorized by constituency, mandal, and village. Once received, the government plans to divide the wards accordingly. Master trainers were trained in Hyderabad on the guidelines for ward division, with a primary focus on ensuring that all members of a family are placed within the same ward. The government identified issues from the previous elections, where voters from the same family were registered across different wards or even in other villages. To address this, voters belonging to the same family will be consolidated within a single ward.

Panchayat Secretaries from two villages, along with Anganwadi, ASHA, and Panchayat staff, have been advised to coordinate in preparing the list. The government has also suggested that all family members should be listed sequentially in the voter list. A special software has been developed for this purpose, and it will be used to carry out the ward divisions. However, the government has not set a deadline for completing the ward divisions.

The government plans to conduct the elections for Gram Panchayat ward members and Sarpanches in three phases. Due to insufficient staff to hold the elections simultaneously, they will be conducted in three stages. The district will see elections for 281 Gram Panchayats and 2,564 wards. The Election Commission has previously issued guidelines on staff allocation for the Panchayat elections. According to these guidelines, one polling station will be established for each ward. Polling officers and presiding officers will be assigned based on the number of voters at each polling station. Polling stations with fewer than 200 voters will have one presiding officer and one polling officer, stations with 200-400 voters will have one presiding officer and two polling officers, and stations with more than 650 voters will have one presiding officer and three polling officers. In villages with more than 650 voters, the Election Commission recommended establishing two polling stations in December of last year.

The term of the Sarpanches and ward members ended on February 1, 2024. According to the Telangana Panchayati Raj Act, elections must be completed before the term ends. Panchayat elections were held in January 2019 in Jangaon district, and the next elections should have taken place by January of this year. However, due to Assembly elections and the formation of the new government, Panchayat elections were delayed. The subsequent Parliamentary elections caused further delays. The Election Commission requested reports from district collectors in December of last year regarding the required polling staff, voters from the last elections, current voters, and reservations for wards and Sarpanch positions in the previous elections. As a result, details of employees working in the district have been categorized by department and pay scale and uploaded to the 'Telangana-Poll' (TE-Poll) website. Along with employee details, information on ward and village-wise reservations for the 2009, 2014, and 2019 Panchayat elections was uploaded to the 'PPRS' module by the 30th of this month last year. With Chief Minister Revanth Reddy recently issuing instructions on the conduct of elections, there is growing speculation that Panchayat elections will be held soon. Some believe the election schedule may be announced in the first week of September, with elections likely to take place in the third week of September. However, official clarity from the government is still awaited.