Chennai: The much-delayed elections to the local bodies across the state will not be conducted at least for the next three months. This is owed to issues created issues by the stakeholders of democracy.
They range from the State Election Commission (SEC), the AIADMK government and the opposition DMK, all of whom complicated the polls by approaching the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, thereby ensuring their postponement.
According to sources, the issue dates back to October 2016. The court had also been entertaining the petitions and the affidavits filed by the stakeholders, thereby delaying the natural law of justice. “Justice delayed is justice denied and as per the constitutional mandate, the state deserves elected members in local bodies. But the civic councils have been held up due to bureaucratic delay and pending litigation”, said a former mayor from Western Tamil Nadu, who wished not to be named. The two political parties and the SEC have taken shelter claiming that they are now waiting for the final court orders, he added.
“The state is not in a mood to hold the elections and that’s the reason they are inventing problems and are working slowly on the orders passed by High Court”, said a state official conforming that no communication has been received in connection with the poll arrangements.
When contacted, state election commissioner Malick Feroze Khan said that poll work was very much underway. The delimitation exercise had been completed in all the districts except Chennai. So far seven zonal conferences on delimitation exercise had been completed and the delimitation committee is in the final stage of compiling the report. Once the report from Chennai Corporation is also received a final delimitation report will be sent to the state for its approval.
When all the issues pertaining to women reservation and delimitation are finalised, the SEC will announce the polls. “We have also adhered to Madras High court’s interim orders and another petition is also pending before the Supreme Court”, he said.
