The outgoing members of panchayat bodies in Jharkhand, who belong to other backward castes (OBCs), are aggrieved as their reserved seats have now been categorised as general ones for the pachayat polls to be held next month.

“Since OBC reservation is a standard norm in the country, it’s unfair to declare the seats reserved for us as general seats in the upcoming panchayat polls. The state government should have done the needful before conducting the polls,” said Indu Devi, outgoing mukhiya (head) of Kapilo gram panchayat in Giridih district that won many national awards for outstanding performances.

Jharkhand Mukhiya Sangh president Vikash Kumar Mahto supported her, saying the state government should not have deprived the OBC candidates of their privilege but instead fulfilled the requirements before conducting the three-tier panchayat polls.

It all began after the state panchayati raj department, in a notification issued on April 1, decategorised OBC seats and declared those as belonging to open category, citing a Supreme Court order.

The Supreme Court, in its order in March 2021, had asked states to conduct triple test before notifying OBC seats by setting up a commission for conducting contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implication of the backwardness, specifying the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned local body wise and ensuring such reservation did not exceed half of the total seats reserved for SC/ST/OBCs taken together.

The apex court also said that if election to local bodies was conducted without complying with the triple test requirement, the state election commission must ensure that the reserved OBC seats go to election as open category seats.

Chief minister Hemant Soren had earlier said that the state had to conduct polls so that the flow of central funds meant for panchayati raj institutions was not stopped for want of elected bodies. So the state government went ahead with preparation for conducting rural polls, adhering to the directions given by the apex court.

Following the Governor Ramesh Bais’s consent, state election commissioner D. K. Tiwari announced on Saturday that a four-phase election for three-tier panchayat bodies of the state would begin on May 14.

“Instead of declaring OBC seats that accounted for 14 per cent of the total seats as general seats, the government should have held the panchayat polls after conducting the required triple test,” Mahto said, adding they could wait for six more months.

“Central funds were not stopped in Madhya Pradesh where panchayat polls are yet to be held,” he said in support of his arguments, adding it would, however, be unfair for the Centre to allow funding in a particular state while stopping the same in another just for political reasons.