Ghaziabad's Next Mayor Likely To Be A Woman

Indian women have finally started gaining recognition for their leadership skills. Now Ghaziabad is gearing up to welcome a woman for its top post in its municipal corporation.

UP's local body polls are tentatively planned for next month. The urban development department on Thursday (October 12) issued a notification, inviting suggestions and objections from the public for the proposed move to reserve the mayor's post for women in 16 municipal corporations in the state. People have to submit their suggestions latest by October 20.

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Other reservations

Among these 16 municipal corporations, the government is planning to reserve the mayor's post in Meerut Municipal Corporation for a woman candidate from the Scheduled Caste category. Civic bodies of Ferozabad and Varanasi will reserve mayor's post for women candidates from OBC category.

"The state government, by invoking Section 7 and sub-section 5 of UP Municipal Corporation, 1959, can reserve any seat for women OBC or SC candidates. It has decided to reserve the mayor's post in Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation for women," said councillor Rajender Tyagi

He added that the state government, while deciding on reserving seats for women, takes into account the population break-up of the municipal area to ensure proper representation. That is why it has decided to reserve the GMC mayor's post for a woman candidate from general category. Now it is just a formality before Ghaziabad gets its second woman mayor.

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Areas like Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Kanpur municipal corporations will be reserving the mayor's post for women in the general category.

Hunt for the right woman leader

The hunt for the right leader has also started. Harender Kasana of the Congress said, "With the mayor's post being reserved for women, Congress can fancy its chance in the local body elections and will very soon start looking for a woman candidate who stands a fair chance of winning."

"GMC mayor posts have always been held by BJP and even earlier we had BJP mayor Damyanti Goyal, it is our bastion and even with new reservation policy, I see no reasons for worry," said Ajay Sharma, local BJP leader.

It is good to see the UP government endeavouring to promote women's leadership qualities. We hope the number of women mayors across the country witnesses a significant increase in the coming years.

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