Local Bodies Department puts reservation roster for Dharamsala MC on hold

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 14

The Local Bodies Department has held the reservation roster for the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation in abeyance for the forthcoming elections to the local body. The reservation roster for all other municipal councils in Kangra has already been declared. The delay in the declaration of reservation roster for the corporation elections is giving nervous times to the councillors of the Dharamsala MC.

Davinder Jaggi, Mayor of Dharamsala, said that the government should decide the reservation roster for the forthcoming local body elections at the earliest, as the delay had hit the working of the corporation. The elected councillors, who feel that their wards would be reserved, had stopped taking interest in their areas, he said.

As per the Dharamsala MC Act, eight of the 17 wards are reserved for the SC, ST and women. Sources said that as per the Act, the reservation of wards had to be on a rotational basis. This means that the wards that were reserved in the last elections would now be open and vice versa.

The Dharamsala MC was formed in 2015 during the previous Congress government. The Congress government had introduced a few controversial provisions in the Act such as a fixed term of two and a half years for the Mayor instead of five years. Rajni remained the Mayor for two and a half years and later Davinder Jaggi took the charge for the remaining period. At that time, the BJP was in the opposition and had opposed the provision.

The sources said that winning the Dharamsala MC would be a prestige issue for the BJP government, as the Congress had won 14 of 17 seats in the last elections.