Women will be in the vanguard of governance, says Kiran Bedi

Striking a note of optimism, Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Saturday said women would be in the vanguard of self governance in the union territory after civic polls are held, which are due for nearly a decade.

With the completion of delimitation of wards and related tasks, the local body elections are expected to be held for five municipalities, 10 commune panchayats and 98 village panchayats, which together have more than 800 wards.

Against this background, Bedi, in a video message to people said, "One third representation would be available for women in the civic bodies, women would therefore be in the vanguard of local self governance and Puducherry as a whole is in for an amazing change in the coming years."

Once representatives for civic bodies were elected by the people, there might be no need for public to visit 'Raj Nivas' to seek redress of grievances as these could be addressed at the local level, she said.

Women, elected to civic bodies have an opportunity to check alcoholism as well, the Lt Governor said adding she looked forward to them heralding a new era of progress when elections to local bodies are completed.

Management skills should also be augmented for women and the onus was now on Local Administration and Rural Development Departments to meet the requirement, she noted.

Bedi had appointed Roy P Thomas as State Election Commissioner, and measures to hold the civic polls has already been initiated by him.

The tenure (2006-11) of elected local bodies, including municipal councils ended in July 2011.

Subsequently, to hold civic polls, the State Election Commission had issued notifications which included aspects like allotment of reserved seats on the basis of delimitation of wards completed in 1995 and on the 1991 census.

The matter went to the court as well and the delimitation exercise has now been completed.