Panchayat polls on track for October

RESERVATION DETAILS EXPECTED TO BE NOTIFIED TODAY, POLL DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED NEXT WEEK
GANGTOK, 14 Sept: The Rural Management & Development Department is expected to notify on Saturday, 15 September, the ward and zilla wise reservation details for the upcoming panchayat polls. This notification will also include the enhancement of reserved seats for women from 40% to 50% across all categories, inform official sources. With this, the process to conduct the panchayat elections in October as originally projected before the Dasain break.
Official sources inform that subsequently, another notification announcing the end of the tenure of the present Panchayats will be published on Monday, clearing the way for Panchayat elections.
The State Election Commissioner, SK Gautam, when contacted, said that once the two notifications are issued, the State Election Commission will notify the dates for the Panchayat elections. The day the election dates are announced, the code of conduct for rural areas will come into effect. As for the elections, although the specific dates will be known only with the Notification, it is clear that the polls will be within a month.
The State Government, it may be recalled, has directed the Commission to conduct the elections on the 2007 reservation pattern in as much as the seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes are concerned; the earlier plan of having community-specific reservations within the ST having been shelved for the present election.
As per existing norms, within 10 days of the notification of the poll dates, the process of filing nominations, withdrawals and scrutiny will need to be completed. This leaves the candidates around 3 weeks of campaigning.