Local body polls after BC survey, govt informs HC

Vijayawada: The state govt on Thursday informed the high court that the process of appointing the state election commissioner (SEC) has been completed and local body elections will be held as soon as the survey to analyse the socio-economic condition of BCs is completed. The state govt clarified that it will not conduct elections during the summer holidays.Advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas told the court that the survey may take another month to be completed. Stating that employees from the Swarna Grama and Swarna ward departments are undertaking the survey, he said a commission appointed by the state govt will decide on the reservations for various castes based on the outcome of the survey.Multiple petitions with different prayers were filed before the high court over the local body elections. One Kesana Shankar Rao sought orders for holding elections only after completion of the survey enumerating the total population of BCs and their socio-economic status by appointing a dedicated commission. Advocate Thandava Yogesh filed another petition, seeking to direct the state govt to initiate the process of conducting local body elections before the expiry of the tenure.Senior counsel A Satya Prasad submitted that no information is available on what the dedicated commission is doing to assess the socio-economic conditions of BCs. He expressed concern over the statements given by those in the govt stating that elections will be held soon. Considering the submissions on both sides, the HC bench headed by Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice R Raghunandan Rao posted the matter for further hearing to the first week of July.