State Election Commission sets Feb 28 deadline for PRI poll preparations in Himachal

Himachal: The State Election Commission (SEC) has set the deadline of February 28 to finalise the reservation roster and complete delimitation work so that the polls to the panchayati raj institutions (PRI) can be held before the deadline of April 30 set by the High Court.

State Election Commissioner Anil Khachi today held a meeting with officials from the state government regarding the holding of the PRI polls. The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary (Finance) Devesh Kumar, Special Secretary (Disaster) DC Ran and Director, Panchayati Raj Raghav Sharma. Chief Secretary Sanjay Gupta and Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) KK Pant, were to attend the meeting but had to go to Delhi for an official engagement.

State Election Commissioner Anil Khachi said talks had been held on the holding of polls. He added that as far as the commission is concerned, all preparations for the PRI polls are in place.

It is reliably learnt that the SEC has directed the state government to finalise the voter lists and notify it before February 28 so that the formalities regarding the holding of the panchayat polls can be completed at the earliest.

The HC has directed that the polls to the panchayati raj institutions (PRI) be held before April 30. The issue of holding the PRI elections before this deadline was informally discussed at the Cabinet meeting held here today.

The state government had deferred the PRI poll on the ground that the Disaster Management Act still remains enforced as road connectivity in many parts of the state was yet to be restored. With the term of the panchayat pradhans being over, the state government could appoint Administrators till the elections are held and new elected representatives are in place.