State to defy Supreme Court on ZP, TP poll

Govt has not option as Guv rejected ordinance: CM

Disclosing this to mediapersons here on Tuesday, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said the government had no option but to go ahead with the elections under the existing quota as the governor has returned the ordinance on amending the Panchayat Raj Act.

The Governor had asked the state government to take the proposal to the State legislature which was not possible at this juncture. “

“There is an apprehension that my government is delaying elections to taluk and zilla panchayats. But we don’t intend to delay for whatever reasons. We will conduct elections in December,” Yeddyurappa asserted.

Asked if the State would not be attracting the wrath of the Supreme Court, Yeddyurappa said there was a political consensus on maintaining the existing reservation to benefit the OBCs and he will have discussions with the Opposition parties in this regard.

He, however, said a final decision would be taken at the Cabinet meeting to be held on November.

He ruled out the possibility of convening an emergency session of the legislature to amend the Panchayat Raj Act to nullify the Supreme Court order on restricting the quota to 50 per cent in the grassroots panchayat institutions.

The chief minister hinted at taking another major decision on extending financial assistance to 10 lakh self help groups (SHGs) across the State to make them venture into economically productive activities. Underlining the high loan repayment rate of 95pc among SHGs, he said the government was planning to set up a corpus of Rs. 500 crore exclusively to extend financial assistance to them for economic emancipation.