CHENNAI: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere again in the elections to local bodies in Tamil Nadu, pointing out that the orders already passed on this issue will hold good. Counsel for DMK, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, mentioned and sought clarification of SC order dated December 11. However, Mukul Rohatgi, counsel for Tamil Nadu government, objected to this plea for clarification saying that already the court had issued orders in this regard. Chief Justice SA Bobde declined to interfere in the matter again.
Already, the SC has directed that elections to rural local bodies in 27 districts, except in nine districts where delimitation is yet to be over, can be held as per the 2011 census. Besides, the SC ordered that the delimitation exercise should be completed in three months.
Following the SC’s refusal to entertain any more prayer regarding the local body elections, elections will be held as scheduled on December 27 and 30 and since there are only three days left for filing the nominations, seat-sharing among the allies of AIADMK and DMK are expected to be over by Sunday.
Taking the lead, ruling AIADMK released its first list of candidates for the post of district panchayat ward members and panchayat union ward members in seven party districts - Theni, Salem, Krishnagiri, Ariyalur, Thiruvarur, Madurai (Rural East) and Thoothukudi (north).
Over 1 lakh nominations filed in 27 districts
The total number of nominations for the elections to the rural local bodies in 27 districts, crossed one lakh on Friday. On Friday alone, 71,763 nominations were received. With this, the total number of nominations received, stands at 1,09,778. There are two more days for filing nominations (December 14 and 16) except November 15 (Sunday), being a holiday.
Of the total number of nominations, 75,170 have been received for the posts of village panchayat ward members; 26,245 nominations for village panchayat chairpersons; 7,659 for panchayat union ward members and 704 for district panchayat ward members.
Meanwhile, State Election Commissioner R Palaniswami chaired a meeting of the Election Observers for the rural local body elections. He urged the IAS officers who have been appointed as observers, to ensure compliance with the model code of conduct strictly and that scrutiny of nominations takes place in an impartial manner. The SEC also gave instructions to the district authorities regarding the free and fair elections.
Vasan seeks cycle or a common symbol for TMC
Chennai: Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) president G K Vasan has moved the Madras High Court, praying for a direction to the State Election Commission to allot its old cycle symbol or in the alternative any one of the common symbols like motorbike or autorikshaw for the ensuing local body elections.
When the petition came up for hearing on the last occasion, Justice P D Audikesavalu was told that a similar petition praying for cycle symbol permanently to it, was pending before a division bench. And the judge tagged this petition along with that one, pending before the bench. On Friday, the matter came up before the bench of Justices R Subbiah and R Pongiappan. It clubbed both the matters together and posted it to December 16 for hearing.
‘Disburse arrears to sugarcane farmers’
Chennai: Former Union Minister and TMC(M) president GK Vasan has urged the State and Central governments to take steps to disburse arrears to sugarcane farmers. “Sugarcane cultivation in the country has declined drastically by 54%. In Tamil Nadu also, the production of sugar has come down to 8.5 lakh tonnes in 2018-2019 from 23 lakh tonnes in 2011-2012. Due to various reasons including arrears, the farmers are forced to stay away from sugarcane cultivation.” He said a framework should be developed to benefit both sugarcane farmers and mills.