Paving the way for Uttarakhand local body elections in October

Dehradun (Amaanullah Usmani) The way has been cleared for the civic elections in Uttarakhand in October. The Dhami cabinet has approved the bills to amend the Act and rules regarding changes in OBC reservation in the bodies.

Now OBCs will get representation in all bodies according to their population on the lines of SC/ST. At some places, reservation will exceed 14 percent, while at others it will be less. The cabinet on Tuesday approved the Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1959 (Amendment) Bill 2024 and Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Municipality Act, 1916 (Amendment) Bill 2024) to be placed in the assembly session.

After this, OBC reservation will be implemented in all the municipal bodies as per the recommendation of a single-member dedicated commission. The Urban Development Department will send a report to all the District Magistrates to implement the reservation. After seeking objections on this report, the District Magistrate will send the final reservation report to the government. After this, the State Election Commission will start the election process.

As per the recommendations of the single-member dedicated commission, the seats of Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chairman, Municipal President, Nagar Panchayat President to Councilor, Councilor, Ward Member will increase in all the bodies. The reservation of Mayor in corporations may increase from 14 to 18.05 percent, the reservation of Chairman in municipalities may increase from 14 to 28.10 and the reservation of Chairman in Panchayats may increase from 14 to 38.97 percent. The number of reserved seats against the total seats is 50 shall not exceed the percentage.

OBC reservation in bodies will increase by 14 percent. In Municipal Corporation, there will be 19.03 percent reservation in Rudrapur of Udham Singh Nagar, 38.62 percent in Kashipur, 20.90 percent in Haridwar of Haridwar district and 36.20 percent in Roorkee, 18.42 percent in Haldwani of Nainital. In the plain districts only Dehradun has been recommended to have OBC reservation less than 14 i.e. 11.92 percent and Rishikesh 9.06 percent. In the hilly district Pauri’s Kotdwar, 6.52 percent OBC reservation has been recommended and Srinagar 5.51 percent.

If we look at municipalities, 22.93 percent OBC reservation has been recommended in Vikasnagar of Dehradun, 34.82 percent in Doiwala, 12.23 percent in Mussoorie, 67.73 percent in Mangalore of Haridwar, 36.04 percent in Laksar, 14.91 percent in Shivaliknagar, 37.85 percent in Gadarpur of Udham Singh Nagar, 63.52 percent in Jaspur, 32.59 percent in Bajpur, 46.05 percent in Kichha, 49.11 percent in Sitarganj, 34.69 percent in Khatima, 62.41 percent in Mahuakhedganj and 26.16 percent in Nagla.

OBC reservation is much less than 10 percent in Gauchar, Karnaprayag of Chamoli, Devprayag of Tehri, Pauri and Dugadda of Pauri, Pithoragarh, Didihat, Gangolihat, Berinag of Pithoragarh, Champawat, Lohaghat of Champawat district, Almora, Ranikhet of Almora district, Bageshwar of Bageshwar district, Nainital of Nainital district, Bhawali municipalities. Reservation will be implemented as per the recommendation, provided the reservation for SC, ST and OBC remains up to 50 percent in total.