Mangaluru: More than 50% seats in DK gram panchayats reserved for women

Mangaluru: More than 50 per cent seats in the 220 gram panchayats in the Dakshina Kannada districts have been reserved for women in the upcoming general elections for these rural local government bodies.

In gram panchayat elections, seats are reserved in two categories – women and general.

The general category has further reserved seats for the Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and General. Women can also compete from seats in these reserved seats.

In the first phase of the elections to be held on December 22, 336 seats out of 651 seats in 37 gram panchayats in Mangaluru taluk are reserved for women.

In Moodabidri taluk, 99 seats out of 193 in 12 gram panchayats have been reserved for women, while in Bantwal taluk, 433 seats out of 837 in 57 gram panchayats are reserved for women.

In the second phase on the election on December 27, of the 631 seats in the 46 gram panchayats of Belathnagady taluk, 327 are reserved for women.

Out of 343 seats in Puttur’s 22 gram panchayats, 176 are reserved for women. In Sullia’s 25 gram panchayats, 148 seats out of 282 are reserved for women and in Kadaba’s 21 gram panchayats, 150 seats out of 285 seats are reserved for women.

Additionally, for the gram panchayats elections this year, women constitute the highest number of voters in the district.

From a total of 10,39,217 voters in the district 5,26,288 are women voters and 5,12,908 men voters. There are 13,380 more women voters than men.