Bhubaneswar: Following the order of Orissa High Court, the state government has revised its seat reservation list for the post of Zilla Parishad chairpersons in all 30 districts for the upcoming three-tier Panchayat elections.
The government has reserved 12 seats for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates. Seven seats have been reserved for ST candidates while five are for SC nominees.
In the earlier notification, four ZP seats had been reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs). However, in the latest notification published Friday, not a single seat has been reserved for this community.
As per the notification published by the Panchayati Raj department, the government has reserved the ZP chief posts in Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Boudh and Bhadrak districts for SC candidates. On the other hand ST nominees will head the ZPs in Kandhamal, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Mayurbhanj, Malkangiri, Rayagada, and Sundargarh districts.
The Zilla Parishad chief posts of 10 districts – Angul, Cuttack, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Gajapati, Deogarh, Nayagarh, Bargarh, Balasore, and Sonepur have been put under the unreserved category.
However, the notification did not mention anything on the reservation of chairperson seats for the districts of Khurda, Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Dhenkanal, Nuapada, Puri, Bolangir and Sambalpur districts. Sources said that the list for these districts will be announced at a later date.
The state Government has also reserved 50 per cent of all ZP chairperson posts for women candidates. The districts are – Kalahandi, Kendrapara, Koraput, Khurda, Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Dhenkanal, Nuapada, Puri, Bolangir, Boudh, Malkangiri, Jajpur, Rayagada and Sambalpur.
