Ghaziabad administration receives 700 objections against proposed ward reservation for upcoming local body polls

Most of the objections received are about the proposed ward reservation. The people who have sent objections seek other reservation or general status for their wards. The objections will be disposed of by Saturday, said Ritu Suhas, additional district magistrate and nodal officer for local bodies

On the last day of filing objections against the proposed ward reservation for the upcoming Ghaziabad local body election, the district administration received 709 objections on Friday.

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has 100 residential wards and 22 have been reserved for women candidates as per the proposed list. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Officials said objections will be disposed of by Saturday and the revised list will be sent to the state government.

“Most of the objections received are about the proposed ward reservation. The people who have sent objections seek other reservation or general status for their wards. The objections will be disposed of by Saturday and the revised list, if any, will be sent to the state government for final approval,” said Ritu Suhas, additional district magistrate and nodal officer for local bodies.

The state government had issued a proposed reservation for different wards in nine local bodies in Ghaziabad earlier in December. The list also includes 100 wards of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, besides other wards in nagar palikas and nagar panchayats.

The proposed list indicates that only 43 seats of councillors will be unreserved while the rest have been reserved for different categories, including for women, other backward classes (OBC) and scheduled caste candidates (SC).

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has 100 residential wards and 22 have been reserved for women candidates as per the proposed list. Besides, the women from the backward classes will be able to contest on seven seats while five others have been reserved for SC women category.

Overall, the women candidates will have 34 reserved seats, including other seats reserved for them under the categories. 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 seats reserved for women, said officials.

According to officials, the local body polls in Uttar Pradesh are likely to be announced by mid-December. The district administration on November 19 also finalised the voters’ list and a total of 249,911 new voters, as compared to the previous 2017 elections, will exercise their franchise in the upcoming polls.

As many as 146,357 new voters will vote for the posts of councillors and mayor of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

Officials said a supplementary list for addition and deletion of names is also under preparation and will be finalised before the announcement of elections.