Municipal polls will be held by end of November: KCR

The government is geared up to conduct municipal elections and they will be completed before the end of November, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao declared on Thursday.

Stating that the elections were delayed by two months because of some court cases, the Chief Minister said the Division Bench of the High Court has given its judgement on two cases. “One more is before a single judge and there will be clarity on it in a day or two. We expect the notification for the elections to be issued in the next two or three days,” Chandrashekhar Rao said, addressing the media.

“As soon as the government gets the proposal for the polls from the State Election Commission, we will notify and hold elections before end of November,” he added.

Once polls are held for the 140 municipalities and corporations, except the GHMC, the government will launch the Pattana Pragati



programme, on the lines of the hugely successful Palle Pragati, he said.

“Development,” the Chief Minister said, “does not come merely because a policy is in place and that is why the government has released Rs 339 crore for the last two months to gram panchayats with funds from the 14th Finance Commission and matching grants from the State. 

“Similarly, Rs 1,030 crore from the Commission funds for municipalities with a matching contribution from the State will be released after the polls for a 30 or a 20 day Pattana Pragati programme,” he said.

“It was with the goal of overall planned development of rural and urban areas that the government introduced the new Gram Panchayat and Municipalities Acts. Once we got the laws in place, we ensured funds are available,” the Chief Minister said.