Chandigarh, December 7, 2024 (Navroze Bureau): The Punjab State Election Commission will announce general elections and by-elections for various municipal corporations and nagar councils/panchayats in the state on Sunday, December 8, 2024, at 11:30 AM.
According to the official communique the Punjab State Election Commissioner Kamal Chaudhary would hold a press conference at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh on Sunday, to make the announcement in this regard. Following this, the Model Code of Conduct would be enforced in the respective cities of Punjab.
It is noteworthy that the Punjab and Haryana High Court, during a hearing on November 11, had directed the Punjab government to issue a notification for these elections within two weeks. This direction came after the court received a contempt petition for failing to conduct these elections. Subsequently, the Department of Local Government issued the necessary notification.
Mentionably, in this case, Malerkotla resident Beant Singh had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, pointing out that the tenure of 42 municipal councils in Punjab had ended several months ago, with some councils exceeding two years without elections. In addition to this the elections for five municipal corporations — Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, and Phagwara — are also pending. Due to the delay in elections, all developmental work had come to a halt. According to the petition, the tenure of most municipal corporations/councils in the state ended in December 2022, yet elections have not been conducted to date.