Urban polls in 9 western districts put on hold

The State Election Commission (SEC) today kept in abeyance election to urban local bodies in nine western Odisha districts where filing of nominations were affected due to ongoing agitation demanding setting up of permanent bench of Odisha High court in that region.

The nine districts where the nominations were not either filed or partly filed are Bolangir, Baragarh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Sundergarh.

The polling will be conductred on September 19. There are 25 urban local bodies in these nine districts comprising 12 municipalities and 13 notified area councils (NACs). Of these, no nomination was filed in 20 ULBs. The new dates for holding the elections in these districts would be announced after receiving reports from respective collectors, State Election Commissioner, Ajit Kumar Tripathy told media persons.

Verification of nomination papers in some western Odisha districts, where nominations were partly filed, could not be done as government offices in these districts remained closed due to the agitation, he added. It may be noted that the lawyers under the banner of Central Action Committee (CAC) are on a stir demanding establishment of a permanent bench of High Court in western Odisha.

The talks between the state Government and the CAC failed to break the stalemate on Augsut 24.