The preparations for the upcoming Gram Panchayat elections in Gadwal are underway. The election process is expected to start soon, following recent instructions from Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. The administrative team is already gearing up, with a strong focus on the division of wards, which is a key step in the election process.
Officials have been tasked with creating detailed voter lists for each ward across all districts in the state. District project managers and computer operators have recently been trained for this task. The division of wards will be based on the voter list from the recent Parliamentary elections. A request has been made to the Election Commission to provide this list, organized by constituency, mandal, and village.
The government has trained master trainers in Hyderabad to ensure proper ward division. The main goal is to keep all family members in the same ward to avoid issues from previous elections, where family members were registered in different wards or villages. Panchayat Secretaries from two villages, along with Anganwadi, ASHA, and Panchayat staff, have been advised to work together on finalizing the voter list. A special software has been developed to assist in the ward division, but no deadline has been set for its completion.
The elections for Gram Panchayat ward members and Sarpanches will occur in three phases due to a lack of staff to conduct them all at once. The district will see elections for 281 Gram Panchayats and 2,564 wards. The Election Commission has issued guidelines for staffing the elections, with polling stations set up for each ward. The number of officers assigned will depend on the number of voters at each station, with additional stations for areas exceeding 650 voters.
The term for Sarpanches and ward members ended on February 1, 2024, and elections should have been completed by then according to the Telangana Panchayati Raj Act. Elections were delayed due to Assembly elections and the formation of a new government, followed by further delays from Parliamentary elections. The Election Commission has gathered reports from district collectors on polling staff requirements and voter details, which are now available on the ‘Telangana-Poll’ website. Information on past election reservations has been uploaded to the ‘PPRS’ module.
There is growing anticipation that Panchayat elections will be announced soon, especially after Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s recent instructions. Some expect the election schedule to be revealed in the first week of September, with actual elections potentially occurring in the third week. However, official confirmation from the government is still pending.
