Civic elections: ‘Reserved list of wards’ doing rounds even before officials finalise it

One of the lists doing the rounds states that about 43 unreserved seats in 2017 may fall under the reserved category for the Scheduled Caste (SC), SC women, other backward classes (OBC) and women

Hectic political activity has started as several lists highlighting reserved seats among the 100 residential wards of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation have started doing the rounds, even before the officials have finalised the list of reserved wards.

The officials said the urban local body elections are likely to be held by the end of this year and the probable candidates as well as incumbent councillors are anxiously waiting to see if their respective seats will fall in the reserved category or not. (HT Archive)

In fact, officials of the corporation said they are still in the process of deciding reserved wards and final list will be out by November 4.

The officials said the urban local body elections are likely to be held by the end of this year and the probable candidates as well as incumbent councillors are anxiously waiting to see if their respective seats will fall in the reserved category or not.

“Several lists are doing the rounds. This has created confusion among the probable candidates as well as councillors who wish to contest again. However, officials have denied circulating any such list and said the list preparation is still in progress,” said Rajendra Tyagi, councillor from Raj Nagar.

One of the lists doing the rounds states that about 43 unreserved seats in 2017 may fall under the reserved category for the Scheduled Caste (SC), SC women, other backward classes (OBC) and women.

The list further shows the interchanged status of the seats in 2022 along with total population of the respective wards and the population of SCs and OBCs in each.

A government order seeking the proposals for reservation of wards in local bodies was issued to different local bodies across the state on October 21 this year.

The government order mentions that seats which are reserved for SCs, OBCs, backward classes and women will not be respectively allotted to the same categories the next time, said officials.

“The list doing the rounds has created a lot of confusion and it shows precise data and status of each ward. If the final list turns out to be similar, that would indicate that the list has indeed been leaked. In that case, an FIR should be registered and an investigation should follow,” said Zakir Ali Saifi, councillor from ward 95 of Prem Nagar.

According to sources, this time, 14 seats are likely to be reserved for SCs, including five for SC women; 21 for OBC including seven for OBC women; and 22 for women (general category).

This leaves about 43 seats which will be unreserved for the Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

“There is likely to be lot of changes this time, inaccordance with the directions in the government order. The reservation is decided on the basis of population in wards and the list is being finalised by a committee of officials. This list is to be finalised by November 4 before we send it to the state administration for a final approval. The lists doing the rounds at present do not bear the signature of any official and we do not validate such lists,” said Nitin Gaur, municipal commissioner, Ghaziabad municipal corporation.