Malda zilla parishad witnesses seat increase

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Jan. 11: The district panchayat and rural development department has published a draft after delimiting segments of three-tire panchayat seats. According to the draft which was published on 8 January, the number of seats of the Malda zilla parishad has been increased from 33 to 34. The department is awaiting people's objections for its final publication by February phase-wise. Besides the Malda zilla parishad, the seats of the panchayat samiti has been increased from 388 to 408 on the basis of 4,500 voters for one seat. But the number of gram panchayat seats has been reduced from 2,232 to 1,889. For gram panchayat, 900 voters have been considered for one seat. The departmental officials said that they would finally publish a demarcation of three-tier panchayat seats on 7 February. Now the parties are busy with checking the draft publication to find out flaws to raise objections. The CPI-M leaders have sought clarification from the officials about seat reservations for Scheduled Tribe. The political leaders are also searching for a strong base in the segments to capture the Malda zilla parishad. It may be noted that in the last panchayat election, the Congress with the help of one Trinamul and one Bharatiya Janata Party member had captured the Malda zilla parishad. Out of 33, the LF got 16 seats and the Congress got 15. The CPI-M had lost one seat owing to misunderstanding with the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) over the issue of seat sharing. The CPI-M and RSP had contested against each other where the Congress candidate won the seat and captured the board.