MPTC and ZPTC elections: Cabinet to take a call on Monday
Hyderabad: The state Cabinet, at a crucial meeting on Monday, will take a call on holding the pending MPTC and ZPTC elections, including a decision on introducing indirect elections for Mandal Praja Parishad President (MPP) and also the Zilla Praja Parishad Chairman posts.
For context, MPTC stands for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency and ZPTC stands for Zilla Praja Parishad Territorial Constituency. These are elected positions in the Panchayati Raj System in Telangana, representing rural local governance at the mandal (intermediate) and district (top) levels, respectively.
Speculations were doing the rounds in political circles that the state government was not in a mood to hold MPTC and ZPTC elections and that it would instead elect the MPP and ZPP chiefs through indirect elections.
Although an amendment to the Constitution is required to replace the existing direct elections for MPTCs and ZPTCs, leaders said that the government was weighing options to introduce a new election system for mandal and zilla parishads.
The State Panchayat Raj Department, which had been seeking legal opinions on introducing a new election process for the local bodies, is preparing a report. The observations made by legal experts will be discussed in the upcoming Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet will then take a decision on whether to go for direct elections.
Congress leaders conceded that the party was upbeat after the municipal elections in which the ruling party secured more than 60 per cent of the municipal bodies. However, the party is not sure that similar results would reflect in the MPTC and ZPTC elections in view of the fact majority of voters belong to the farming community.
Farmers are unhappy over the state government not disbursing Rythu Bharosa scheme benefits for the last three months. So, the government is belatedly planning to release the funds, though the state is reeling under severe financial crisis. “Farmers already gave fractured verdict in the Panchayat elections and expressed their resentment against the government for not releasing the Rythu Bharosa benefits regularly,” leaders said.
Leaders said that the first option before the government is to adopt the mode of indirect elections for mandal and zilla parishads. If the law does not permit in any circumstances, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy will find other alternatives or hold direct elections for MPTC and ZPTC based on the readiness of the party to win a majority of wards.
