Civic body polls: Ghaziabad admin hears objections against ward reservation

The district administration till Friday received about 709 objections and those who filed objections were called for a hearing on Saturday at the district collectorate. Many of the objections were related to the change in the reservation status of wards

The Ghaziabad district administration on Saturday started the process of hearing public objections on the proposed reservation status of 100 wards issued by the Uttar Pradesh government earlier this month. Officials said that a revised list, if any, will be sent to the government on Monday.

Councillors of various wards of Ghaziabad meet Ritu Suha, additional district magistrate, to discuss the issues in reservation of wards, at district magistrate office auditorium in Ghaziabad on Saturday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The district administration till Friday received about 709 objections and those who filed objections were called for a hearing on Saturday at the district collectorate. Many of the objections were related to the change in the reservation status of wards.

The Ghaziabad district has nine local bodies, including the nagar palikas and nagar panchayats along with the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, which has 100 wards.

“Our objection was heard by officials. We want our ward to be represented by a woman from the Other Backward Class (OBC). This category has not been represented for the past three elections in spite of the fact that our ward has a majority OBC population. As per the proposed reservation list issued by the government, the seat has been reserved for a general woman candidate,” said Faisal Malik, a resident of ward 61.

The proposed list by the government indicates that only 43 seats of councillors will be unreserved, while the rest have been reserved for different categories, including women, OBC and Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

As per the proposed list, 22 wards have been reserved for women candidates in the Ghaziabad municipal corporation. Besides, OBC women will be able to contest from seven wards, while five wards have been reserved for SC women category.

Overall, women candidates will have 34 reserved seats. The rest of the seats will also have reservation status for candidates of SC and OBC categories.

SC and OBC category women can also contest on the wards reserved for women, said officials.

“We filed an objection for our ward. As per the present list, our ward will elect a general woman candidate. Since we have a sizable OBC population, we filed an objection and demanded that the seat should be reserved for the OBC woman category. The last time too, the seat was reserved for SC category. Officials heard our objection and said that the final list will be issued in the coming days by the government,” said Kishori Lal, a resident of ward 11.

District administration officials said that they initiated the process for hearing of objections. “The list will be sent to the government for a final decision and we will submit it by Monday,” said Ritu Suhas, additional district magistrate and nodal officer for local bodies.

According to officials, the local body polls in the state are likely to be announced later this month.