Pune, Navi Mumbai, Nagpur and Nashik among 15 cities to have women mayors

Pune Navi Mumbai Nagpur and Nashik are among the 15 cities in Maharashtra to have women as mayors following the reservation announcement on Thursday officials saidThe state has announced the reservation for mayoral posts in 29 municipal corporationsThe draw of lots was held under the chairmanship of Minister of State for Urban Development Madhuri Misal and will be applicable for the next twoandahalf years an official statement saidIt said that of the 29 civic bodies 15 will have women mayors from various reserved categories marking a strong push for womenrsquos representation in urban local governanceAdditional Chief Secretary of the Urban Development Department Dr K H Govindrajan was present during the draw the statement saidAs per official information only one mayoral post has been reserved for the Scheduled Tribes ST category In line with existing rules there is no provision for reservation for Scheduled Tribe womenThree mayoral posts have been reserved for the Scheduled Castes SC category of which two are reserved for Scheduled Caste womenEight mayoral posts have been reserved for the Other Backward Classes OBC category including four posts for OBC womenAmong the remaining 17 municipal corporations nine mayoral posts have been reserved for women under the general category while eight posts fall under the open general categoryMunicipal corporations and reservation detailsScheduled Tribe ST KalyanDombivliScheduled Caste SC Thane GeneralJalna WomenLatur WomenOBC Women Jalgaon Chandrapur Ahilyanagar AkolaOBC General PanvelIchalkaranji Kolhapur and UlhasnagarGeneral Women PuneDhule MumbaiNavi Mumbai NandedWaghala Malegaon MiraBhayandar Nagpur and NashikGeneral Category Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Parbhani SangliMirajKupwad Amravati VasaiVirar Solapur PimpriChinchwad and BhiwandiNizampurWomenrsquos leadershipOfficials said that the reservation aims to strengthen inclusive governance and ensure wider participation of women and marginalised communities in city administration during the next mayoral termMumbais next mayor to be from open women categoryMumbais mayor will be from the open women category as per the reservation lottery drawn by the Urban Development Department on Thursday morning clearing the way for the majority party to decide on the name of Mumbais next mayorAccording to UDDs laws for urban local bodies each citys mayoral seat is reserved on a rotation for elected candidates from the Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes Other Backward Classes open category and women The reservation is decided through a lottery that was conducted by the UDD at 11 am on Thursday for 29 municipal corporations across the state where polls have been recently concludedParties will now be able to officially name their mayoral candidate for Mumbai by submitting a letter of intent to the municipal secretary in BMC