Telangana govt may lift 2-child norm for candidates contesting Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls - Hindustan Times
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Telangana govt may lift 2-child norm for candidates contesting Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls

Hindustan Times, Hyderabad | BySrinivasa Rao Apparasu | Edited by Sparshita Saxena
Oct 09, 2020 09:19 PM IST

n September 2019, the TRS government enacted a legislation dropping the two-child norm in the elections to municipalities and municipal corporations.

The Telangana government is likely to introduce a crucial legislation seeking to allow candidates having more than two children to contest the forthcoming elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

File photo: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao.(PTI)
File photo: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao.(PTI)

The legislation seeking to amend the GHMC Act, 1995, is expected to be passed at the two-day session of the state legislation commencing on October 13.

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According to an official release from the chief minister’s office on Friday, the government has decided to conduct a one-day session of the state legislative assembly on October 13 and that of the state legislative council on October 14.

The assembly would meet at 11.30 am on October 12 and pass a legislation amending the GHMC Act, 1955, besides a couple of other bills. The bills passed in the lower house would be placed before the legislative council which will meet at 11 am on October 14, the official release said.

The bills to be introduced in the state legislature would be formally approved at the state cabinet meeting to be held at 5 pm on Saturday under the leadership of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at his camp office at Pragati Bhavan. The cabinet is also expected to discuss the Regulatory Farming Policy to be implemented during the Rabi season.

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As per Section 21 (B) of the GHMC Act, a person having more than two children shall be disqualified for contesting the election or for continuing as a member, except under certain conditions like giving birth to twins in the second delivery etc.

Now, the Telangana government is contemplating amending this Act, ahead of the GHMC elections scheduled to be held in November and December, giving relaxation to the two-child norm.

In September 2019, the TRS government enacted a legislation dropping the two-child norm in the elections to municipalities and municipal corporations, but since the GHMC has a separate Act of its own, the government is now proposing to amend the act to relax this rule.

While the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi leaders are tight-lipped over the amendment to be brought to the GHMC Act, the Bharatiya Janata Party said the TRS government was planning to remove the two-child norm only under pressure from its political ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

“The MIM wants this two-child norm to be lifted because many of its candidates won’t be able to contest the elections if it is enforced,” BJP state official spokesman K Krishna Sagar Rao said.

He pointed out that in 2015 itself, there was a talk that the KCR government might do away with this clause but it did not do so because it was hardly one and a half year in power then. “Now that it has won two assembly elections and majority of local bodies and municipalities, it has decided to take up the amendment,” Rao added.

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