UP Gram Panchayat election 2021: Yogi govt releases reservation list, transfers 18 IAS officers

Representational Image: ZeeNews

New Delhi: For the upcoming three-tier Uttar Pradesh gram panchayat elections, the state administration has released the reservation list for some of the seats. The districts for which the reservation list has come out include Varanasi, Kannoj, Rampur, Sambhal, Kasganj, Amethi, Moradabad, Meerut, Ballia, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Ghaziabad, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Bhadohi, Banda, Pratapgarh, Firozabad, and Agra. 

The UP Panchayat Elections are scheduled to take place by April 30, in which as many as 57,207 panchayat heads will be elected this year.

Earlier in February, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath nullified the 2015 reservation order of the previous Akhilesh Yadav government. The new order has left the prevailing rotational seat reservation in rural local bodies null and void.

The then Samajwadi Party government had introduced the 10th amendment in the Panchayati Raj Rule to revoke reservation in seats, but the Yogi government paved the way for the mandated reservation of seats on a rotational basis prior to 2015.

According to the rotational formula for reservation, seats reserved for scheduled caste (SCs), scheduled tribe (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs) categories earlier will not be reserved for the same categories in 2021.

Currently, Uttar Pradesh has 826 vikas khands, 58,194 gram sabhas, 7,31,813 wards in gram sabhas, 75,855 wards in kshetra panchayats and 30,051 wards in 75 Zila panchayats.

Out of the 75 Zila panchayat chief's posts, 16 have been reserved for SC candidates (including 6 for women) and 20 OBC candidates (including 7 for women), while out of the remaining 39 seats for Zila panchayat chiefs, 13 have been reserved for women, leaving 27 unreserved seats.

Among 826 posts of Kshetra panchayat chiefs, five have been reserved for ST candidates, 171 for SC candidates, and 223 for OBC candidates.

Ahead of the crucial local body polls, the Yogi government on Tuesday night transferred 18 IAS officers in an administrative reshuffle, transferring commissioners of four divisions and District Magistrates of six districts. These districts include Rampur, Bandayu, Basti, Chitrakoot, Deoria, and Kanpur Dehat. 

The commissioners of Prayagraj, Meerut Bareilly, and Moradabad divisions have also been transferred.