Politics

Jaipur: Rajasthan State Commission for Backward Classes (RSBC) will launch a series of public dialogue programmes at all divisional headquarters from Nov 17. The commission will examine the nature of backwardness and understand problems faced by OBCs in the state based on these dialogues. Commission chairman Madan Lal Bhati will preside over these programmes that are scheduled till Dec 8. The programmes aim to gather comprehensive evidence on socio-economic challenges and barriers encountered by OBC communities. The exercise will include former and current public representatives (members, chairpersons, heads) of urban local bodies, zila parishads, and panchayat samitis, besides MLAs and MPs. Discussions will be held with all of them, and based on that, district-wise reports will be prepared.Based on the RSBC’s report, the state govt will recommend reservations for OBC seats in the upcoming municipal and panchayat elections.The public meetings are proposed in Udaipur on Nov 21, in Bharatpur on Nov 24, in Bikaner on Nov 27, in Ajmer on Nov 28, in Jaipur on Dec 2, and in Kota on Dec 8. The commission will submit its report to the state govt by the end of Jan or mid-Feb next year.

Although the deadline for the Special Intensive Review (SIR) has been extended in all 12 states and Union Territories by a week, election officials in Raj said Booth Level Officials (BLOS) in the state have already met over 95% of the target, making the extra time superfluous for officials here.Even in the 19 constituencies of Jaipur district-that has the highest number of voters-BLOs have completed enumeration of more than 91% of the voter list.Naveen Mahajan, CEO of Rajasthan, told TOI, “Out of 5.46 crore enumeration forms in the state, over 5.24 crore have been uploaded to ECI-Net, representing a 95.9% achievement. This success is the result of technical expertise, teamwork, and continuous monitoring at the district level. Going at this rate, the state could have achieved the 100% target even before the original deadline of Dec 4. The extension is applicable for a few other states where the process is going slow.” In Jaipur, deputy district election officer Meghraj Meena said over 90% of the forms had been digitised under the SIR. Till 6pm on Sunday, 43,89,700 (over 91%) of the enumeration forms had been digitised.Among the 19 assembly constituencies of Jaipur, Chomu recorded the highest completion rate at 99.48%.