Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Cabinet on Friday approved a proposal of the state government for extension of tenure of 65 urban local bodies (ULBs) by six months.
The decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting, which could not be briefed to the media due to the ongoing monsoon session of the State Assembly, is most likely to be announced in the Assembly by the government, sources said.
The tenure of these 65 ULBs was scheduled to be over on September 19, 2018,
It may be recalled that state government had directed the district collectors to complete Ward delimitation of wards and reservation of seats for the ULBs by April 30 this year. However, the work is yet to be completed as the state government has decided to move the Supreme Court challenging the Orissa High Court order on restricting reservation of seats within 50 per cent.
The High Court had asked the state government that barring the scheduled areas, it should not exceed 50 per cent reservation of seats for the scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC) in the non-scheduled areas for the forthcoming ULB polls.
The court had also told the state government to limit the reservation of seats for OBCs to not more than 11 per cent as against 27 per cent earlier. However, the court later noticed the violation of its order after it found that the reservation quota for OBCs was more than 50 per cent in 50-55 ULBs.
According to political analysts, the decision to extend the tenure of the urban bodies has been taken to avoid elections at this juncture as the BJD government feels that it would receive a strong challenge from the BJP and the Congress this time.
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