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| A woman casts her vote during the third phase of panchayat election in Dhubri on Friday. Picture by UB Photos |
Dhubri, Feb. 22: The Rabha Hasong Joint Movement Forum strongly objected to a draft of the list of villages for delimitation.
The forum strongly objected to the draft that deleted the names of several villages from Goalpara and Kamrup districts and did not maintain the contiguity of villages.
The state election commission announced the polls to the Rabha Hasong Council in January this year.
Preparations for the polls got under way following the publication of the draft of village councils and general council for delimitation yesterday in all the block development offices, circle offices and offices of Goalpara and Kamrup deputy commissioners, an official source in Goalpara said.
Goalpara deputy commissioner Pritam Saikia said according to schedules announced by the state election commissioner, the draft of the village councils and general council was published.
Claims and objections can be submitted to offices across the council area till February 28.
“Process of claims and objections is to be completed within time given but if not completed, date will be extended,” Saikia added.
ARSU president Tonkeswar Rabha alleged that five villages from Goalpara and 10 villages from Kamrup districts were found deleted from the draft list compared to the last draft published in 2005.
“Moreover, in this draft, contiguity of villages was not maintained and some Rabha villages were deleted from one constituency and included in the another constituency far away while some non-tribal villages included in the council area,” Rabha alleged.
While strongly objecting to the government’s move to publish the names of the non-tribal villages in the council, Rabha alleged that government was trying to create trouble and mistrust between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities.
“It is clear from this draft that the government only wants to create more trouble and find some reasons to stop the council election,” Rabha alleged.
ARSU sources said there were 400 village councils under Goalpara district and 379 in Kamrup district but names of five and 10 villages have been deleted.
Official sources said according to the Election Commission’s notification, the final list of the delimitation draft of constituencies will be published on March 8. The draft roll will be published by March 13 and the final electoral roll by April 1.
The commission will notify the poll on April 2, the last day of filing nominations will be April 9 and scrutiny of nominations will take place on April 10.
The last date for withdrawal and publication of list of contesting candidates will be April 12. Counting and declaration of results will take place on May 2, sources said.
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