A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the High Court seeking directions to the State government not to prepare the reservation list in a hurry for the upcoming urban local bodies (ULBs) polls.
The PIL, by Bangalore-based advocate Hemanth, says that the revised data on the State’s population will be released by February 2013 and the reservation list for the ULB polls should be prepared based on those figures.
“As the term of the ULBs will finishby the end of February 2013, there is no hurry to prepare the reservation list now. A list prepared using old data will only lead to confusion,” said the PIL.
The PIL said, following a recent High Court directive, the State government had been preparing the reservation list for ULB elections in a hurry and it was based on the 2001 census figures.
“The Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu governments have said they will go for ULB polls based on census figures awaited in February 2013. Our State should also withhold the reservation list till the updated census figures come in February 2013,” said the PIL.
In the first week of November, the State Election Commission had filed a writ petition in the High Court, seeking directions to the State government, to provide it with the reservation list for elections to 209 ULBs (out of a total of 214), at the earliest.
The Court then directed the State government to furnish the same within 15 days. A few days ago, the government directed deputy commissioners of all districts to follow the 2001 census data while drawing up the list of reservation of wards for holding elections to the ULBs, including seven city corporations.
