Power, Water Crisis Hit Panchayat Poll In AP

Despite the Andhra Pradesh chief minister’s claim that panchayat elections would be held in June, the government is likely to go slow on it, Congress sources said, even as the lack of progress in preparing reservation pattern has kept the election commission in wait mode. 
    
It is not just the aggressive opposition campaign against power crisis in the state that seems to have discouraged Kiran Kumar Reddy, who was otherwise jubilant on the back of the victory in co-operative polls, but also the turbulence in the UPA government in Delhi in the wake of Mulayam Singh Yadav threatening to pull out support to the government. 
    
“On the one hand, the state is reeling under an unprecedented power crisis and acute shortage of drinking water, of which the opposition parties are set to take advantage. On the other hand, there is political uncertainty in the Centre. It’s really not a very conducive situation for the state government to hold local body polls, which would set the tone for the parliament and assembly elections ahead,” said a senior Congress leader. 
    
Some ministers and legislators, especially from Rayalaseema and Telangana regions, are understood to have urged the CM to put off the polls considering the power and water situation. “Addressing the issues of power supply and drinking water should be the government’s priority now. While holding panchayat elections is important, it would be better if we go to polls after we get some relief with a good monsoon. As the situation is not encouraging right now, even the electorate would not be enthused by the idea of elections,” minor irrigation minister T G Venkatesh, who represents Kurnool in Rayalaseema, said before he left for a foreign tour on Friday. Meanwhile, certain technicalities are also set to delay the polls. 

The government is required to send the reservation pattern to the election commission in accordance with the Supreme Court’s judgment last month. But state election commissioner S P Ramakanth Reddy said he is yet to receive it and that without it, the election process cannot be started. “The state government should have sent the reservation pattern with details of the population break-up by now. While I don’t know what the cause of the delay is, we are left with no option but waiting,” Ramakantha Reddy said. 
    

Earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled that panchayat polls could be held with the existing reservation pattern that ensures 34% quota for backward communities, 18.3% for SCs and 8.25% for STs. The apex court ruling had come against a high court ruling that had struck down the reservation percentages on the grounds that the overall reservation would exceed the cap of 50%. 
    
While the current reservation pattern is based on the 2001 census, the registrar general & census commissioner (RGCS) is expected to release a new register based on the 2011 census by April 15. This is making the state government ambivalent about conducting the panchayat polls as the apex court order may be infructuous once the new census register is in place. 
    
“I think we are running against time. If we want to hold the polls as early as June like the CM said, we need to send the reservation pattern to the election commission at least by April 10 and obtain the election announcement before the release of the new census register. But there is no progress to this. The new census register would open scope for litigants to move court with a fresh petition which would create a new hurdle for the polls,” said an official in the panchayat raj department. 
    
When contacted, minister for panchayat raj K Jana Reddy said the government was not oblivious to the technicalities and was taking steps to hold the elections at the earliest. “As such, there has been no formal announcement on the panchayat polls and there is no binding schedule. However, as the chief minister said, the polls may tentatively be held in June,” he said. 
    
Holding panchayat polls is imperative for rural infrastructure development. The state failed to secure central grants worth Rs 3,000 crore from the 13th Finance Commission in the current financial year for providing drinking water and sanitation in rural areas because it had not held local body elections. The state also lost around Rs 1,000 crore last year after the Centre stopped the grants meant for local bodies from the second quarter. The term of the panchayat raj institutions, comprising 1,094 zilla parishad territorial constituency (ZPTC) members, 14,591 mandal parishad territorial constituency (MPTC) members and 21,843 sarpanches ended in July 2011. Since then, these posts have been under the control of special officers.