Bhubaneswar: Moving a step forward in conducting the much delayed urban polls, the State Election Commission (SEC) has sent electronic voting machines (EVMs) to 15 districts of the state by Thursday.
As many as 111 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur municipal corporations will go for polls after nearly three years.
According to sources, the urban election is likely to be conducted after the Panchayat polls, which may be completed by the end of February. The elections will be held in around 5,000 booths in the civic bodies.
So, over 1,000 EVMs will be required for it. Store in-charge at the office of SEC Rajendra Kumar Sahu said, “We have started dispatching EVMs along with necessary statutory and non-statutory forms required to conduct the election.”
Earlier Wednesday, EVMs were sent to five districts, while today the machines were sent to ten more districts, he added. This time, council chairman and mayor will be elected directly by voters.
The maximum limit of reservation of seats has been kept under 50 per cent for scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and backward class citizens (BCCs) in all ULBs of the state.
The urban poll was delayed after the High Court of Orissa, in 2013, had observed that the upper ceiling limit of reservation of seats for the SC, ST and BCC should not exceed 50 per cent in accordance with the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in the K Krishna Murthy case.
Following this, the State Government approached the Supreme Court through a Special Leave Petition (SLP) and subsequently through a review petition challenging the aforesaid orders of the High Court.
The SC heard the cases and upheld the decision of the Orissa High Court.
In order to comply with the decision of the High Court, the government recently amended the municipal laws to limit the total extent of reservation of seats in ULBs to 50 per cent.
PNN
