| Reservation for DDC chairpersons: SEC rejects Cong’s objections | | Heads of all 20 DDCs across J&K to be elected on Feb 20 with reservation for women, SCs and STs. | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 1: State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday rejected all objections filed by Congress party and some individuals and decided to complete the process of electing chairpersons of the all the District Development Councils (DDCs) on February 20.
The day after the SEC had announced the reservation roster for chairpersons of DDCs, Congress had raised strong objections on January 13 and termed the decision as “arbitrary”. The party had alleged that sole criteria of pick and choose were adopted by the government with an aim to favour some members of the DDC and to deprive others of the right to contest for the post of chairpersons.
JKPCC chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma had questioned the roster for women reservation for DDC chairperson from the district starting from number three on alphabetical order, and said that it had to be from number one in alphabetical order like in BDCs, Panchayats as well as in the municipal bodies where it was serial number one, four, seven and so on, in the first instance. The party had urged the Lt Governor to intervene and immediately review the roster formula and check the illegality being committed at the behest of some influential candidates, which will be a great injustice to the system. It also sought a clarification with regards to the quota of women in the ST category, as one third of seats in the category should go to women in category also, in the event of three seats for STs, one has to go to women in that category.
Meanwhile the SEC on Monday overruled all the objections filed against the draft reservation for these posts, stating that all of them were devoid of merit.
In an order, SEC found that none of the objections/representations so received had any merit.
“No infirmity, leave alone irregularity was brought out in the draft notification for reservation dated 25th January, 2021,”, the order reads as.
According to the order, Baramulla, Ganderbal, Shopian, Ramban and Kishtwar have been reserved for women, while Poonch has been reserved for women from Schedule Tribe Category.
The order further reveals that Anantnag and Rajouri have been reserved for STs while Jammu and Udhampur seats have been reserved for SCs.
With unveiling of the final reservation order, the election for electing DDC chairpersons has to be held by February 20. |
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