The Hindu 21.09.2010
Municipal polls put off; special officers to replace chairpersons
Special Correspondent
| Telangana issue makes State government tread cautiously |
HYDERABAD: Realising that the disturbed political situation was not conducive for holding elections, the Cabinet postponed polls that are due to 99 municipalities and 11 municipal corporations by six months.
At a meeting here on Monday, the Cabinet decided to appoint special officers in place of the existing chairpersons whose term is coming to an end on September 29 as a stopgap arrangement before the elections. An ordinance to this effect is likely to be promulgated shortly even as Chief Minister K. Rosaiah wanted the officials to tread cautiously in the issue.
The government asserted that elections to civic bodies were being postponed pending a final decision on providing ward-wise reservation to backward classes. Sources, however, said the ruling party was not in favour of elections at this juncture when the separate Telangana issue was simmering.
Briefing reporters later, Information Minister J. Geeta Reddy said a decision on the elections would be possible only after ascertaining the population of BCs in wards which was not available now. It was decided to promulgate another ordinance to amend the relevant Act that would enable the “creamy layer” among BCs to contest the polls.
The Cabinet extended ban on the CPI (Maoist) and six other organisations by another year from August 16, 2010. These were Radical Students' Union, Rythu Coolie Sangham, Singareni Karmika Samakhya, Viplava Karmika Samakhya, All-India Revolutionary Students' Federation and Radical Youth League.
Arogyasri
The meeting accepted the report of the Cabinet sub-committee on Arogyasri health insurance scheme wherein efforts would be made to restrict its benefits to the below-poverty-line families who invariably held white cards. Pending unique identity, which would be given to each citizen by the Unique Identity Authority of India, the data available with the Civil Supplies Department would be used to ascertain the eligibility of the family for the time being.
If the department lacked such information in case of an eligible family, a certificate by the district Collector would be considered for allowing free corporate treatment to a patient in a family.
