Chennai: Rural local body elections to nine newly carved districts in Tamilnadu would be held soon, Minister for Rural Development K R Periakaruppan told the State Assembly.
Moving the demand for grants for his department, he said after enactment of Tamilnadu Panchayats Act in April 1994, the first ordinary elections were held to all the three tiers of rural Local Bodies in October 1996.
The second, third and fourth ordinary elections to the rural Local Bodies were conducted in October 2001, October 2006 and October 2011 respectively.
The State Election Commission issues notification to the seats (Ward Members) and Offices (Chairpersons) of District Panchayats and Panchayat Unions which are held on partyĀ basis. Whereas, the elections to the seats and offices of Village Panchayats are held on non-party basis.
Periakaruppan said in December 2019, rural Local Body elections to 27 districts were conducted.
The State Government in 2019, trifurcated Vellore District into the districts of Vellore, Tirupathur and Ranipet and bifurcated Kancheepuram District into Kancheepuram andĀ Chengalpattu District.
Likewise, Villupuram District was bifurcated into Villupuram and Kallakurichi Districts and Tirunelveli District was bifurcated into Tirunelveli and Tenkasi Districts.
In all, four erstwhile Districts were bifurcated into nine districts. heance elections for rural local bodies in these newly formed nine districts were not conducted due to theĀ delimitation process.
The elections for the same will be conducted soon, he said, adding, Mayiladuthurai district was created in December 2020 after the conduct of rural Local Body elections to combinedĀ Nagapattinam District.