Women and SC/ST reservation fixed for local body chairperson posts-OxBig News Network

Ahead of the upcoming local body elections, expected to be held later this year, the Local Self-Government department has issued an order fixing the number of local body chairperson positions reserved for women and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) members. Three of the Corporations, 44 municipalities, 471 grama panchayats, seven district panchayats and 77 block panchayats will be headed by women.

As part of the rotation policy, the Mayor posts in Kochi, Kannur and Thrissur Corporations will be reserved for women in the upcoming term. Out of the six municipal chairperson posts reserved for SCs, three will be reserved for SC women. One municipal chairperson post will be reserved for Scheduled Tribe category. Out of the 92 grama panchayat president posts reserved for SCs, 46 will be reserved for SC women, while 8 out of the 16 such posts reserved for ST category will be reserved for ST women. Eight out of the 15 block panchayat president posts reserved for SCs will be reserved for SC women.

19,950 wards

Following the delimitation of wards across local bodies in the State last year, the number of wards in three-tier panchayats has gone up by 1,577. The total number of wards in grama, block and district panchayats has risen from 18,373 to 19,950. The number of wards in 941 grama panchayats has increased by 1,375 from 15,962 to 17,337. The number of wards in the 152 block panchayats has gone up by 187 from 2,080 to 2,267. In the 14 district panchayats, the number of wards has increased by 15 from 331 to 346.

Of the 17,337 wards in grama panchayats, 8,852 are reserved for women, 1,759 for Scheduled Castes (SC), 783 for women belonging to SC communities, 289 for ST communities and 121 for women belonging to ST communities while 7,341 are general seats. Of the 2,267 wards in block panchayats, 1,152 are reserved for women, 228 for SC communities, 82 for women belonging to SC communities, 36 for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 12 for women belonging to ST communities.