Maharashtra Zilla Parishad Elections-Stage-Managed Postponement

population below the poverty line LACK OF LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE A stark weakness of the Seventh Plan which the planners themselves were aware of but which they did not have any means of overcoming at the stage of making the plan was that the plan did not have a longer term perspective, the strident talk of a triumphant march to the twenty-first century notwithstanding. The reluctance of the political authority to mobilise adequate resources for development pre-empted resources in sight for investment only in ongoing projects in the public sector which were expected to give returns during the Seventh Plan period itself and there was nothing left for new starts, not THE prospects of the elections to the zilla parishads in Maharashtra taking place have receded. The elections seem to have been put off indefinitely following the judgment of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on January 25, which struck down the Zilla Parishad (Electoral Division and Reservation of Seats) Rules, 1985 framed by the Maharashtra government. The court directed the state government to reframe these rules to increase the number of seats reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, taking into account the rise in their population after the 1971 census. The court also ruled that the expression 'population' means the population figures of 1971 census in regard to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as notified by the census authority on August 8, 1977 under section 5 (3) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act, 1976.