Ending long-continuing uncertainty-tinged speculation, the State Election Commission has announced on Monday that elections for 84 urban local bodies (ULB) in Uttarakhand would be held on November 18. After the commission issued notification the model code of conduct has come into force in the State.
It is learnt that the District Magistrates of all the 13 districts of the State would issue separate notifications for the ULB election on Tuesday. Bhatt, further, informed that the commission would use the ballot papers in these elections as required number of electronic voting machines (EVM) was not available.
Informing the media persons here on Monday, the State Election Commissioner (SEC), Chandrasekhar Bhatt said that counting of votes would be done on November 20.
He ,further, informed that the elections would be held in seven municipal corporations, 39 municipal councils and 38 nagar panchayats. He added that a total of 2357840 voters would exercise their franchise in these elections out of which 1148027 would be female and 1209813, male.
SEC informed that the candidates can submit their nomination papers on October 20, 22 and 23 while the scrutiny of nomination papers would be held on October 25 and 26.
The candidates can withdraw their nomination papers from 10 am to 4 pm on October 27 and the candidates would be allotted symbols on October 29, he added.
Elections in 8 ULBs would not be held
There are 92 urban local bodies in the State out of which eight are municipal corporations, 41 municipal councils and 43 nagar panchayats. Due to pending case in Uttarakhand High Court (HC) on the extension of the limit of the municipal corporation, election would not be held in Roorkee.
Similarly, the delimitation of Bajpur municipal council has not been yet completed while the review of electoral roll of Srinagar municipal council is in progress. The elections in the nagar panchayats of Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri are not held as they remain covered with snow while the writ petitions challenging constitution of Bhatronjkhan and Selaqui as nagar panchayats are pending in the High Court.
Under this situation, elections in 84 ULBs would be held on November 18.
533 hyper -sensitive polling booths in State
The election commission has declared 305 polling stations and 569 polling booth sensitive for 84 urban local bodies of the State where elections are being held. Similarly, 236 polling stations and 533 polling booths have been declared hyper-sensitive by the state election commission. Interestingly, no polling station or booth has been earmarked as sensitive or hyper-sensitive in Dehradun and Haridwar districts.
SEC Chandrasekhar Bhatt said that the commission would deploy 28-30 observers to keep an eye on the elections.
Rs 16 lakh spending limit for mayoral candidates
The State Election Commission has set up a maximum limit of Rs 16 lakh for the contestants for the post of mayors in the municipal corporations while candidates contesting for the post of deputy mayor and ward members would spend up to Rs 2 lakh in these elections.
For the contestants for chairman municipal councils with less than 10 wards, a capping of Rs 4 lakh is kept while in the councils with more than 10 wards, the contestants are allowed to spend Rs 6 lakh.
The candidates contesting for the post of chairman nagar panchayat can spend a maximum of Rs 2 lakh while member nagar panchayats should not exceed Rs 30000 in their election spending.
