Hry races to finalise civic poll schedule before Jan 4

Chandigarh: In a much-awaited development regarding the municipal elections in Haryana, the state govt has announced that it would release the schedule for the civic body elections before Jan 4, 2025, with the polls to be completed by Feb 4, 2025.As per the undertaking submitted by the Haryana govt before the Punjab and Haryana high court, the election programme for conducting the fresh elections to new municipalities in the state shall be positively announced within one month. “The entire exercise ultimately resulting in the announcement of results, shall be completed within one month subsequent thereto,” the state informed the HC. The undertaking was given by the state on Wednesday in response to a petition, which sought directions to conduct the MC elections.With this, all the pending MC polls in the state are expected to be completed by Feb 4, 2025.While allowing the petitioner to withdraw the petition in view of the state’s undertaking, the HC has made it clear that “the issues raised in the instant petition are kept alive for being re-raised and determined at any appropriate stage”.The division bench comprising Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma passed these orders while hearing a petition filed on the issue regarding delay in holding the MC polls in the state. Importantly, a majority of municipal elections, including those for the MCs of Gurgaon, Karnal, Hisar, Faridabad, Rohtak, and Yamunanagar, have been pending in the state for a long time. The tenure of these municipal corporations had come to an end a long time ago. The delay in these elections has led to massive problems, including irregular collection of garbage, overflowing of sewerage, water shortage and damaged local roads.The elections to the MC of Gurgaon (MCG) were last held in 2017, and the tenure of the councillors and the mayor had come to an end in 2022. Similarly, the elections for the MCs of Karnal, Hisar, Faridabad, Rohtak and Yamunanagar had come to an end in Jan this year.The counsel for the petitioner in this case, advocate Raman B Garg, informed that the rules stipulate that fresh elections should be held within six months, but they were delayed because the delimitation exercise could not be completed. Garg added that if the delimitation is not completed, the elections should be held based on the existing delimitation.However, officials from the Haryana urban local bodies department argued that the election of the MCs could not be conducted because the delimitation had not been carried out and approved by the state. Delimitation is a process of reorganisation of wards based on population, social composition and geographical area, and is undertaken ahead of the elections to ensure fair representation of different sections of society. Sources in the local bodies department informed that initially, the department may release the scheduled for around 42 municipalities, including 34 municipal council/committees and eight corporations.
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