The Times of India         26.10.2010

Ward reservation leaves netas fuming

GURGAON: On Monday, the deputy commissioners office saw soaring tempers as people argued about matters relating to the seat reservation for the schedule caste, schedule tribe, backward classes and women candidates.

The meeting was attended by members of various political parties and few of those from some resident welfare associations. The contentious issue was the selection of six wards for SC/ST and two for backward classes, out of the 35 wards notified by the municipal corporation of Gurgaon.

Quite expectedly, almost all the political parties wanted their wards to be reserved for SC/ST candidates and started bickering on the matter. The decision to reserve particular wards for SC/ST candidates was already taken by an ad-hoc committee, headed by the deputy commissioner Rajinder Kataria.

The ten wards reserved for women candidates were selected in the presence of all members, in a draw of lots. But unlike the wards for SC/STs, politicos seemed hardly bothered about the the reservation of women candidates, and draw went off quite peacefully.

Talking on the matter, Gopi Chand Gehlot, head of Indian National Lok Dal district and former Haryana assembly deputy speaker, said, We strongly object to the way the administration has taken the decision on reserving wards for SC/ST candidates all by themselves. There are quite a few places like Palam Vihar where the ST/SC population is lessThere is no transparency in the way they have reserved the wards.

However, the deputy commissioner rejected the allegation.

If we wanted we could have had made the decision and held the draw inside a closed door meeting. The only reason why we invited the political parties and other resident welfare associations is because we wanted to make the entire process transparent, said Kataria.