Municipal elections will have to wait till next year

In a major setback to the resident welfare associations who have been demanding immediate elections for the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, the Haryana Minister for Urban Local Bodies has said the municipal elections might not be held this year. Sanjeev K Ahuja reports.

In a major setback to the resident welfare associations who have been demanding immediate elections for the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, the Haryana Minister for Urban Local Bodies has said the municipal elections might not be held this year as demarcation of the municipal wards was still not over.

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The municipal elections in Gurgaon could be held sometime in the middle of next year, Mahender Pratap Singh, the minister, said on Tuesday.

Under the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, the state government is duty bound to hold municipal election within six months of formation of corporation.

However, it was recently only when the state government had issued a notification for the third time for extending the time limit for holding the elections to December 31, 2010.

"Though the work of survey and formation of 35 municipal wards had been completed in Gurgaon but the data so accumulated has to be processed. The process is quite lengthy," Singh said.

The minister said there had a been a number of changes in the jurisdiction of the MCG, including addition of villages on two occasions. He said, "All such formalities take a lot of time. Therefore, if need be we may have to come out with another notification for extending the time limit for holding municipal elections in Gurgaon beyond December 31, 2010."

Singh said the elections could be held in mid-next year.