Bhubaneswar: Moving a step forward in conduct of Urban Polls, the Housing & Urban Development Department on Saturday issued a notification issuing draft reservation list of chairpersons of 107 Municipalities and Notified Area Councils (NACs) of the State.
As per the notification, the office of Chairperson in 54 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) has been reserved for women candidates. The chief post in 9 ULBs has been reserved for Scheduled Caste (woman), five for Scheduled Tribe (woman) and 40 for women.
Similarly, the chairperson post in eight other ULBs reserved for Scheduled Caste and three for Scheduled Tribe, while 42 others are under unreserved category.
The Department has sought objections/ suggestions from all stakeholders and the general public on the draft reservation list.
All persons interested in connection with the notification can submit their objections/suggestions within a period of 15 days.
“Any objection and suggestion which may be received by the Director Municipal Administration (DMA) from any person interested on or before the expiry of the period so specified above shall be considered by the State Government,” read the notification.
Few days ago, the H&UD Department had issued a draft notification on reservation of the Mayor seat for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC).
The Government has reserved the Mayor post for BMC and Berhampur Municipal Corporation for women candidates while CMC has been kept unreserved.
The Department had invited objections and suggestions from the general public on the reservation for the post of Mayor.
Notably, the State Government has amended the Odisha Municipal Rules, 1994, to hold direct election for the posts of Mayors of municipal corporations and Chairpersons of Municipalities and NACs during the upcoming poll.