Hold civic polls in 4 months: Andhra Pradesh HC

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed the Kiran Kumar Reddy government to hold elections to municipalities and municipal corporations within four months from the date of publication of 2011 Census data.

A division bench of the High Court comprising chief justice Madan B. Lokur and justice P V Sanjay Kumar while dismissing a plea by the Forum for Good Governance as withdrawn, granted the order. The petitioner sought the court’s direction to declare the state corporations in the state even after their term expired in September, 2011. Advocate general A Sudarshan Reddy submitted an affidavit stating that the population figures as per 2011 Census would be published only in March. The affidavit says that the process of Census 2011 would be completed by March 31 and the state government requires about 95 days to finalise reservation of wards and divisions for SCs and STs and delimitation.The government contended that if the reservation to SCs and STs were finalised as per the figures of 2001 Census, it may deprive the legitimate opportunities to the reserved categories.