Haryana Government has geared up for fresh elections on around 2000 vacant seats in State panchayats. The State Government’s decision to make academic qualification mandatory and keep out loan and power bill defaulters and criminals had affected the filing of nominations with about 2000 posts of sarpanch and panch remaining vacant in the state.
Talking to the mediapersons, Haryana Development and Panchayat Minister OP Dhankar on Friday said that the State Government has sent a request to Election Commission to conduct election on the seats that was left vacant during the panchayat polls held earlier this year.
Around 2000 seats of panch and sarpanch are lying vacant in the state, said he.
The Minister added that examinations in various schools and colleges have already been held for the previous academic session and the Government is hopeful that educated people would come forward to file their nominations for these vacant posts this time.
The amendments made in the Haryana Panchayat Act, 1994, had barred the uneducated people to contest the polls.
As per the new Panchayati Act, general-category candidates for panchayat polls were required to have a minimum qualification of completing class 10. Scheduled caste and women aspirants were required to clear class 8 while women from the SC category were eligible only if they have passed V class.
Apart from mandatory educational qualifications for the candidates, the Act had made it mandatory that poll candidates have a functional toilet at home. Anyone found defaulting in payment of agricultural loan and electricity bills were also disqualified from contesting the poll.
Following these amendments, a record 333 unmarried women were elected to the post of sarpanch and panch in the panchayat polls held in three phases in Haryana.
According to the State Election Commission, the average age of those elected as Sarpanch was 34 years in the third phase. In the second phase of PRIs elections, the average age of elected sarpanches was 37 years while it was 34 years in the first phase held on January 10.