The civic body will publish the final list on August 5, which will be the last process before elections
Nagpur: For the candidates from OBC category it was a day of mixed reaction, as on one hand they finally got seats reserved for them in the forthcoming elections to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), and on other hand their quota stands reduced due to a cap of 50 per cent on reservations.
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Thursday 07 Nov. 2024
Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B and his team, including Additional Municipal Commissioner Ram Joshi, Deputy Commissioner Nirbhay Jain, Assistant Commissioner Mahesh Dhamecha and Padma Uikey completed the draw successfully at Town Hall, Mahal on Friday.
The civic body will publish a draft of reservation-wise seats on Saturday. Suggestions and objections can be registered between July 30 and August 2. The civic chief will publish the final list on August 5, which will be the last process before elections.
Compared to 41 seats that were earmarked for OBC candidates in 2017 polls, in the forthcoming elections only 35 seats are reserved. This is despite an increase in strength of the House as only 22.5 per cent reservation remained for OBC on the basis of the population after keeping aside the full quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories.
The fresh reservation as expected has again changed the scenes in many wards. Again for new candidates it is a god-send opportunity, for others it was a day of big disappointment as their well laid out plans have gone awry. The draw of lots for reserving seats for OBC category was held by the civic body administration on Friday at Shrimant Raje Raghuji Town Hall, Mahal.
The Prabhags where two seats remained unreserved post draw of lots for SC and ST, the reservation for OBC was affirmed through the draw. The lottery was drawn for reservation for women and men in the OBC category. From a total 35 seats, 18 seats were reserved for women and 17 seats were reserved for men.
Meanwhile, NMC administration will notify the seats earmarked for OBC category in 52 Prabhags. Objections and suggestions have been invited on this reservation till 3 pm of August 3. Chits of the Prabhags to determine reservation for OBC category were drawn at hands of students of NMC schools. Assistant Commissioner (Election) Mahesh Dhamecha gave information about the changes to be made after OBC reservation and the lottery to be drawn. The notification dated December 15, 2021, issued by the State Election Commission provided guidelines on reservation draw.
Earlier, 56 seats were reserved in general category for women and 57 seats were reserved in open general category. Accordingly, many had even started soft campaigns considering favourable calculations. Now post OBC reservation the number of open category seats stands reduced and so do the hopeful future Corporators would need to redraw their strategies.
According to the fifty percent reservation for women, 18 seats in the general category for women were reserved for OBC women. 17 seats in the general open category will be reserved for OBCs. Therefore, 38 seats in the general category and 40 seats in the open category will remain as it is.
The Supreme Court has capped reservations at 50 per cent and in NMC now 19 per cent seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 7.7 per cent for Scheduled Tribes. Therefore, OBCs will get 23.5 per cent reservation. There are 156 seats from 52 wards of which 31 are SC category, 12 for ST, 35 for OBC, and 78 seats for general category.
The State Election Commission (SEC) may enforce code of conduct anytime after August 5. Considering earlier notifications of SEC, elections are likely before the end of October.
