Civic polls in remaining municipalities to be held in 6 to 8 phases in May, SEC tells HC
KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court (HC) on Monday took on record the affidavit filed by the State Election Commission (SEC) in connection with arrangements and duration of civic polls.
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, was informed that SEC had already initiated dialogue with the state government in this regard and that elections for the remaining municipalities would be held in 6 to 8 phases in May, 2022.
The division bench, during the hearing of PIL seeking direction to the state government and the SEC to hold municipal polls in the state in one phase, pointed out that the SEC had earlier informed that it would complete the civic polls election process by April 2022. It asked as to why SEC decided to extend the same to May 2022.
Mentioning that the Opposing parties were not given a copy of the response filed by the SEC on time, the division bench adjourned the matter for further hearing on December 7.
Earlier, the SEC had informed the court that it was unable to conduct civic polls in one phase because of unavailability of EVMs.
To conduct civic polls in one phase, 30, 000 EVMs are required.
At present, the Commission has over 15,000 EMVs. The SEC claimed that 85 per cent of the residents in Kolkata had already received double vaccine doses followed by Howrah Municipal Corporation, where 55 per cent got both the jabs. So to start with, the Commission wants to hold polls in the two civic bodies and will gradually do so for all municipalities.
The court had directed the state and EC to file an affidavit in connection with the civic poll arrangements latest by December 6.
However, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections are scheduled to be held on December 19.
Elections have been pending in 112 municipalities of the state, including Kolkata, since 2020. It was learnt a few days ago that the arrears of re-election would be completed by the SEC in two or three steps.
