Hold local body polls, says AIDWA

PUDUCHERRY: The All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has urged the government to conduct the local body elections in the Union Territory.A resolution to this effect was adopted at the13th State conference of AIDWA, chaired by its general secretary Sudha Sundararaman here, on Saturday.The last time the UT saw local body elections being conducted was 37 years ago on July 7, 2006, in which women were elected to 33 per cent of the seats. But now with the term expiring on July 13, she regretted that the election process had yet to begin. The government needs to immediately appoint a state election commissioner, she said.Resolutions were also adopted demanding control of prices of essential commodities and bringing down inflation and proper implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Though the scheme provided 100 days of work to each family, in Puducherry it had fallen well short of its target. In 2010-2011, 74,411 persons from 60,780 families had registered themselves under the scheme for which Rs 20 crore had been allocated. However, only 40 days of work had been provided. Moreover, the UT government was yet to issue a government order to notify the wages fixed at Rs 119 under the scheme.