Panchayat Polls 2012 sets into motion

MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT EXPECTED TO BEGIN TODAY
GANGTOK, 18 Sept: The Model Code of Conduct for the upcoming Panchayat elections is expected to come into force on Wednesday with the State Election Commission expected to announce the dates for filing of nominations, scrutiny, withdrawal and polling.
The State Government had issued a separate notification yesterday declaring the tenure of present Panchayats are completed and authorizing the State Election Commission to hold fresh elections before the scheduled time. The new panchayats need to be in office by 05 November 2012.
The State Government has also notified the delimitation of Gram Panchayats and Zilla Panchayats (Territorial) and reservations of seats.
The Rural Management and Development Department last Saturday published a Gazette Notification detailing the reservation details for the Panchayat polls at the district level and gram level.
The nodal Department – RMDD - has notified the reservation roster for upcoming election the ward and Zilla (Territorial) wise reservation details for the upcoming panchayat polls. This notification also includes the enhancement of reserved seats for women from 40% to 50% across all categories. With this, the process has begun to conduct the panchayat elections in October as originally projected before the Dasain break.
The panchyat polls will be held in the 2007 reservation format, except the enhancement in seats reserved for women. As per the 2007 format, 28 percent of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes [Bhutia, Lepcha, Limboo and Tamang], 6 percent for Scheduled Castes, 22 percent of Most Back Ward Classes [Gurung, Rai, Bhujel, Sunuwar, Jogi, Thami], and 16 percent for Other backward Classes [Newar, Bahun and Chettri].