In a significant decision, the Tamil Nadu Government on Monday issued orders to reserve the Chennai Mayor post for a woman belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) when ordinary elections are conducted for the urban local bodies in 2022. It also reserved the Mayor posts in Tambaram and Avadi Municipal Corporations for a SC (Women) and SC (General) respectively.
A senior official told The Hindu that this will be the first time a woman from the SC community will be elected as Mayor of the Greater Chennai Corporation when “indirect elections” are held for the urban local bodies this year. Explaining the reason behind the decision, he said the rotation of reservation was to be notified once in 10 years, he said.
When the elections are held and results announced, all three municipal corporations in and around the State capital would be held by members of the SC community — two of them women. The Mayor posts in nine Corporations — Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Erode, Kancheepuram, Karur, Madurai, Sivakasi and Vellore have been reserved for Women (General) candidates.
More posts set aside
The State government also reserved the post of chairperson of 10 municipalities to SC (General) candidates, 10 Municipalities to SC (Women), one Municipality to woman from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 58 others to Women (General). It also reserved 288 chairperson posts in town panchayats — two for ST (Women), one for ST (General), 43 for SC (Women), 42 for SC (General) and 200 for Women (General).
The senior official pointed out that the Supreme Court had in September last year granted four months time over the elections to the urban local bodies in the State. “The deadline expires next week, and so, we have notified the reservation of seats for Mayor posts in municipal corporations, chairperson posts in municipalities and chairperson posts in town panchayats,” the official said.
When the elections for urban local bodies are held, the post of Mayors, chairpersons of municipalities and presidents of town panchayats would be held as “indirect elections”, wherein the elected councillors would elect eligible persons for these posts, he said.
For the list of seats reserved for women, SCs and STs, log on to http://bit.ly/3fxY4vU
