Kerala: Reservation process for heads of local bodies begins

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State election commission (SEC) has started the task of selecting with chairperson/president positions in local bodies (councils and committees) that would be reserved for SC/ ST categories. SEC will finalise the number of polling booths across local bodies on Wednesday. Less than 100 additional polling booths are likely to be finalised for local body election which is likely to be held in December.
At present there are 34,443 polling booths in state.In panchayats, the cap has been fixed at 1200 voters/polling booth and in municipalities the limit of voters/booth is 1500. If the number exceeds the limit fixed for a booth, additional booths will have to be fixed.
SEC had recently completed reservation of wards in local bodies for SC and ST categories. The government had notified that in municipal councils, 39 heads will be from the general category and 44 chairperson positions will be reserved for women.
There will be reserved chairperson posts for SC in 6 municipal councils of which 3 municipal councils will be headed by SC (Women). The head of one municipal council will be from ST community. As for municipal corporations, there won’t be SC/ST reserved posts for heads of councils. Six head positions will be shared equally between women and the general category.
Reservation is done based on calculating percentage of SC/ST population in all municipalities across the state and respective percentage in individual municipality. Municipalities, where reservation had been done for chairperson posts since 1995, will be exempted from being considered for reservation this year. The municipalities with the next highest percentage of SC population will be considered for six reserved SC posts this year.
In 1995, four municipalities were chosen for reserving chairperson post in SC category and the number had repeated in 2000, 2005, 2010 till 2015 when six municipalities were chosen for reservation of chairperson in SC category and one municipality for ST category.
Among municipalities, Nedumangad, Kalamassery, Mukkam, Kodungallur, Perinthalmanna, Ponnani and Farook may be chosen for reservation considering the percentage of SC population in present list. However, final categorization may vary depending on various factors.
Panchayats with president posts reserved for SC/ST will be selected based on percentage of SC/ST population in panchayats at the district level and respective percentage in each panchayat. Ninety two panchayats will be chosen in the district where 46 president positions each will be reserved for SC and SC female. There will be eight panchayats each with president posts reserved for ST and ST female. In block panchayats, three will have ST heads while 15 block panchayats will have president positions reserved for women.
In district panchayats, six panchayat heads will be from general category while seven panchayats will be led by women and remaining one panchayat will have president post reserved for SC.