As a first step for the conduct of local body polls in Puducherry,
the government has constituted a committee on Wednesday to carry out the
delimitation of wards on the basis of Census 2011 and provide
reservation for the polls. 

A notification has been issued to the  delimitation committee, secretary of local administration T Srikanth told Express.

“We will complete all tasks at the earliest in accordance with the High Court order,” he said.

The
four-member delimitation committee is  headed by retired director of
higher education G Paneerselvam and other members include commissioner
of Puducherry municipality, S Rajamanicam, retired deputy director, V
Nagarajan and director of local administration department A S P S Ravi
Praksh. The panel  will make recommendations for the delimitation of
municipal and village wards with regard to the population and determine
the total number of reserved seats.

After completion of the
delimitation process and reservation, the committee will give
recommendations to the government, based on which the government will
issue notification and forward it to the State Election Commission (SEC)
to proceed with the Civic elections to the Municipalities and Commune
Panchayats in the UT.

In the Union Territory there are 120
municipal wards in the five municipalities and 98 village wards in
Puducherry and Karaikal region. The previous delimitation was done in
1995 and since then the population has grown manifold, delimitation was
required for the conduct of elections.

On December 13,2012  Madras
High Court had directed the Puducherry government to immediately obtain
the 2011 census data preferably within two months and then carry out
the delimitation and reservation process in the wards. Though the High
Court had not fixed any time frame for delimitation process, Supreme
Court had directed the Puducherry government to complete the
delimitation of municipal and commune panchayat wards within two months
after getting the census data, while disposing of a special leave
petition (SLP)  filed by V Perumal, state secrertary of CPM.  Thereafter
the SEC has been directed by the  High Court to notify polls with the
updated data and hold the elections within three months from the date of
the notification.

However, four months have already passed in
getting the Census data. The delimitation process may require good time
to complete it. There are statutory requirements of the delimitation
process, necessitating calling for objections which may consume some
time. The previous delimitation that began on June 1994 took a year to
complete, said official sources.

Even the reservation for Backward
Class (BC) may take time as the data pertaining to it is not available
in the Census report. The delimitation panel will have to depend on the 
Thangamani Commission’s report or work out other ways to get the data
for providing reservation, sources added.

Moreover, the government
is facing financial crunch which may be a deterrent to the holding of
the polls. Chief Minister N Rangasamy has sought the release of more
than `240 crore due to local bodies in the UT as grants to the local
bodies.

The last civic body elections were conducted in 2006,
after 38 years based on the High Court direction. The term of the
elected bodies ended on July 13, 2010 and since then political parties
have been demanding the conduct of polls.