Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has opened the Zila Parishad Chairperson seat in Shimla while reserving half of the total posts for women, as the Department of Panchayati Raj issued the latest reservation roster ahead of the Panchayat elections.
The newly released roster shows that six out of the 12 districts have their Chairperson posts reserved for women. At the same time, four districts—including Shimla, Kullu, Una and Bilaspur—have been kept unreserved.
According to the roster, Sirmour and Solan have been reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) women, while Lahaul-Spiti has been reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) women. Kangra has been reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) women, while Hamirpur and Chamba fall under the general category for women. Mandi has been reserved for SC, and Kinnaur for ST.
The Chairperson of a Zila Parishad is not directly elected by voters. Members are first elected from respective wards, after which the Chairperson is chosen from among them. With the reservation roster now notified, political parties and aspiring candidates have stepped up their outreach efforts across districts.
