Hyderabad: 3 MPs claim not told of municipal delimitation
Government submitted two counter-affidavits to state that it had followed due procedure to which the petitioner filed the MPs’ affidavits.
Hyderabad: Refuting government’s contention that it had followed the procedure in the pre-poll process to hold municipal elections, three members of Parliament — Mr Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Mr A. Revanth Reddy of the Congress and Mr Bandi Sanjay Kumar of the BJP — told the High Court that they were not informed about the delimitation of wards in the municipalities in their constituencies.
The thee MPs submitted individual affidavits before the High Court in the PIL filed by Mr K. Anjukumar Reddy alleging that there were irregularities in the delimitation of wards in the municipalities and that the government had not followed the procedure established under the Municipalities Act. Government submitted two counter-affidavits to state that it had followed due procedure to which the petitioner filed the MPs’ affidavits. According to Rule 7 of the Telan-gana Municipalities (Division of Munici-palities in Wards) Rules 2019, the municipal commissioner concerned should inform MLAs and MPs about the draft proposal to divide or re-divide the wards and seek their views and suggestions.
The petitioner’s contention that the practice was not followed was supported by the three MPs. Mr Venkat Reddy stated that out of 16 municipalities in his constituency of Bhongir, eight municipal commissioners had not informed him about the draft proposal. Mr Revanth Reddy submitted that he was not informed about the division of wards in five municipalities out of 13 in his Medchal-Malkajgiri constituency.
Mr Bandi Sanjay Kumar from Karim-nagar told the court that his signature was forged by some municipal authorities to show as if notices about division of wards had been served on him. “I was shocked to see the signature on 2-7-2019 in the letter by the municipal authorities. I submit that on 2-7-2019, I was in Delhi attending the Parliament session and did not sign the letter. I have enquired with my family members. They informed me that they did not receive any such letter,” he said. He submitted that he was not informed about the division of wards.
The case will come up for hearing on Wednesday.