By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net
Hyderabad: Of the 150 seats of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), 92 have been reserved for different categories and only 58 will be in the general categories on which every body will be able to contest.
50 seats have been reserved for the backward classes, four percent of which will be for the backward groups of Muslim community. In these 50 seats, 17 will be exclusive for women. 12 seats have been reserved for the scheduled castes and two for the scheduled tribes.
Even in the 58 seats of general category, 28 have been reserved for women. Thus in all 50 seats will be reserved for women in different categories. However the final notification of the reservation of seats will be issued on July 6 and the opposition parties will be given an opportunity to file their objections.
Meanwhile the move to reserve a few seats for the backward Muslim groups among the BC reserved seats has triggered off a controversy with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protesting against it. A BJP delegation met the governor N D Tiwari and submitted a memorandum opposing reservation of any seats for Muslims. “This will be injustice with the BCs whose benefit will be taken away by the Muslims”, the memorandum said.
The BJP leaders pointed out that the Muslim reservations act was only meant for giving 4% reservations to the community in government jobs and education and not in the political bodies. Even that act was challenged in the court and the verdict of the High Court was reserved.
The AP Backward Classes Welfare Association had also opposed reserving seats for Muslims out of the 33% quota of BCs saying it will be an injustice with the other backward classes. “Let the government first increase the total number of seats for the BCs and then give a share to the Muslim community”.
This is first time the backward groups of Muslims are being provided political reservation by the state government after they were brought in to the BC (E) category in accordance with the AP Reservation in Favor of Socially and Economically Backward of Muslims act 2007. This act identifies 14 groups of Muslims. The constituencies where the population of backward Muslims is high will be reserved for them.
The erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has traditionally been dominated by the Muslim political party Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). The MIM has ruled the civic body on its own or with the help of another major party including Congress and TDP at different times. But after the system of direct election of city Mayor was introduced by the Telugu Desam government, the MIM could not win the post and it was occupied by the TDP in the last elections.
But now that the merger of surrounding seven municipalities and rural areas have been merged in to the MCH to create 150 member Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the demographic map of the state has changed and MIM is unlikely to get a majority on its own.
This time there will be no direct election for Mayor but he or she would be elected by the elected corporators, MLAs and MPs. The post has also not been reserved for any caste and it was in general category.
There are speculations that the Congress and MIM will have an understanding in the GHMC polls to be polled after Ramadan. The post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor is likely to be shared by the two parties on the circulation basis.
GHMC is the fifth biggest civic body in the country and its budget has crossed Rs 2000 crore.
Link:
http://www.ghmc.gov.in/