Governor Arif Muhammad Khan sends back controversial ordinance on adding wards before local elections

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Governor Arif Muhammad Khan has sent back to the chief secretary the controversial ordinance brought by the government to add one ward each to all local bodies, with the local body elections scheduled to be held in December next year. It has been suggested to seek the approval of the Election Commission as the code of conduct is in place. The code of conduct is valid till June 6. The Governor also sent back the Cabinet meeting's recommendation to release the 3 prisoners with remission of sentence to seek the approval of the Election Commission.

It was decided to make the ordinance in a special cabinet meeting on Monday. In the evening, it was brought to the Raj Bhavan for the approval of the Governor. Yesterday, the governor examined the ordinance and suggested sending it back. If the ordinance comes into effect, 1200 new wards would have been created. Although each ward was added, there would have been an opportunity to redefine the boundaries of all the wards. Before the last local elections, in January 2019, an ordinance was submitted for ward division, but the governor did not sign it. In February 2020, the bill passed by the legislature was signed by the governor, but he abandoned the amendment in favor of another ordinance due to the impossibility of ward division during the Covid-19 pandemic.