Uttarakhand: The ball is in the court of Election Commission on Panchayat elections, government is ready for elections in three-tier Panchayats

There is a situation of doubt over the Panchayat elections in Uttarakhand. On the one hand, the Panchayat representatives are demanding to extend the tenure of the Panchayats, while the attitude of the government has been not to extend the tenure till now. However, after the continuous pressure from the Panchayat representatives, the government has had to consider it. But the rules related to the elections in the Panchayat are coming in the way of extending the tenure.

The tenure of the Panchayats in Uttarakhand is ending on 27 November this year. Regarding the current situation, it does not seem that the elections will be able to be held on the stipulated time frame. In such a situation, the Panchayat representatives had demanded from the government to extend the tenure and conduct Panchayat elections in 12 districts of Uttarakhand along with the 13th district Haridwar in 2027. Actually, the Panchayat elections under Haridwar district in Uttarakhand are different from the rest of the districts. In such a situation, with the argument of one state one Panchayat election, the Panchayat representatives are demanding to extend the tenure of Panchayats in 12 districts.

The Act related to Panchayat in Uttarakhand does not allow the increase in the tenure of Panchayats. In such a situation, if there is a need to make arrangements for one state one panchayat election, then the tenure of the Panchayat of Haridwar district can be reduced. But instead of making this demand, the Panchayat representatives are demanding an extension of their tenure.

However, after continuous pressure from the Panchayat representatives, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had a conversation with the Panchayat representatives and asked the officials to submit a report on this by October 20. In this matter, the Panchayati Raj Directorate has submitted its report to the government. But on the basis of the argument of the Panchayat representatives, the government is getting a separate report prepared on the matter of having a system related to extending the tenure of panchayats in other states. Panchayati Raj Secretary Chandresh Yadav has asked Additional Secretary Yugal Kishore Pant to submit his report within a week for this.

On the other hand, with the fact that there is no provision for extending the tenure of panchayats in the Act, the government has made it clear that the tenure of panchayats is not going to be extended. Apart from this, the Panchayati Raj Secretary also made it clear that because there is no provision for this in the Act. Therefore, all preparations for the elections were already completed and whenever the Election Commission sets the deadline, the government is fully ready for the elections.

With this statement of the government being ready for the Panchayat elections, the ball is now in the court of the State Election Commission. In such a situation, the State Election Commission will conduct the elections on time or there will be scope for delay, this commission will decide.