SRINAGAR: With the terms of the current municipalities ending later this year, the Jammu and Kashmir government has set the ball rolling for holding urban local bodies’ elections in the union territory.
The Housing & Urban Development Department will place a formal request before the chief electoral officer (CEO) for undertaking revision of electoral rolls, even as the administration will also carry out delimitation of wards in urban areas of J&K before unveiling the schedule of polls.
To begin with, the J&K government has appointed Anil Koul, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department as nodal officer for the conduct of forthcoming municipal elections in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
According to an order issued by the Housing & Urban Development Department, the nodal officer will coordinate with chief electoral officer, all deputy commissioners, commissioners of municipal corporations and Director, Urban Local Bodies, Jammu, and Kashmir for placing request to chief electoral officer J&K for undertaking an exercise for revision of electoral rolls in the municipal areas.
His terms of reference also includes inclusion and exclusion of wards in consultation with concerned Municipal Corporations and Municipalities.
The government has also ordered that the deputy director and secretary of respective ULBs and Municipal Corporations shall be the liaison officers and shall provide all assistance and proper coordination to the nodal officer for smooth conduct of municipal elections, 2023.
J&K has two Municipal Corporations, 19 Municipal Councils and 57 Municipal Committees.
Sources told that ULB polls are likely to be held in the month of September 2023.
“The election schedule could be announced in the month of August 2023,” sources said, adding that the term of the incumbent Municipal Corporations and other Municipalities is ending in the month of October- November.
The last ULB polls in Jammu & Kashmir were held in the month of October 2018 when the erstwhile state was under Governor’s Rule. The polls were boycotted by National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party.
