Civic body polls in Jharkhand, scheduled to be held in December, will be deferred as the Tribal Advisory Council (TAC) has recommended continuing with reservations for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in municipal areas falling under scheduled areas.

The TAC at its meeting chaired by chief minister Hemant Soren in Ranchi on Wednesday opined that the ST reservation should be maintained in scheduled areas with a tribal majority population and in municipal areas too.

“It was decided that the Jharkhand advocate general would be consulted in this regard and after the approval of the state cabinet, a proposal would be sent to the central government in this regard,” said tribal welfare minister Champai Soren.

A decision in this regard will be taken after the approval of the Centre and till then elections in municipal areas cannot be held.

Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais has given consent to the proposal of the state election commission to hold elections in all the 48 municipal bodies of the state.

A formal notification by the state election commission was scheduled to be issued in the last week of November.

However, with Wednesday’s development, it would take several months to decide the schedule for fresh elections.

According to the new rules in the light of the Jharkhand Municipal Bill 2021, the state election commission had to publish the reservation roster for the elections, in many municipal bodies of the scheduled area, reservation for tribal communities on single posts was abolished.