Lo, 50 per cent women are being positioned in our local bodies, polls under way

Mullappally Ramachandran may say people cannot vote fearlessly in Kerala, India. State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan may pooh-pooh the allegation of the Union Minister. No doubt, people can understand a little bit of politicking.

However, the beauty of it all in Kerala is that 2.50 crore people are exercising their franchise for electing the leadership of various local bodies. This is for the first time that the local bodies would have 50 per cent women representing the people. In other states, such a scenario cannot be dreamed as of now.

The polling has already begun on Saturday (October 23) in seven districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargod districts. In the other seven districts-Idukki, Kottayam, Alapuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Malappuram- polling would be held on October 25.

Brisk polling has been registered in the Malabar area of the State. There are 978 grama panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 60 municipalities and five city corporations in the state. Of the 60 municipalitiesm, election is being held only in 59 municipalities as the term of the Mattannur municipality will expire only in 2011. Of the 21,612 total wards, women will don the leadership positions in half of them.

Paper ballots are being used in all panchayats and electronic voting machines in municipalities and corporations.

As many as 8,000 EVMs are being used in the municipalities and corporations. There are 40,000 polling booths and 2.6 lakh polling officials.

Gandhiji’s gram swaraj may be eluding the nation, garbage clearance may be the worst problem for the people and no one is taking care of the issue for a solution on a permanent basis, still the people have a prominent role in all areas of the realm through local bodies.