Haryana Government on Monday suspended four panchayat heads and a panch in Fatehabad district for allegedly submitting fake educational certificates to contest panchayat elections early this year.
The action was taken on basis of a complaint with the Fatehabad district administration.
last year, Haryana passed an ordinance fixing minimum educational qualification for contesting panchayati raj institution (PRI) elections, besides laying other conditions.
According to the complaint, sarpanches — Veerpal Kaur of Pilchhian village, Baljeet Kaur of Bhani Khera village, Sonil Rani of Samain village and Sunita of Bangaon village — and panch of Talwara ward, Darshan Singh, had allegedly submitted fake educational certificates.
Taking cognisance, Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner, N K Solanki, issued show-cause notices to them and called them for a personal hearing.
However, the accused could not present any concrete evidence in their defence. Therefore, expressing dissatisfaction over the presented evidences the deputy commissioner has suspended them with immediate effect.
The Deputy Commissioner has also directed block development and panchayat officers concerned to take charge of all movable and immovable assets of the suspended sarpanches and hand over charge of the panchayats concerned to panches.
The elections to the panchayat bodies were held in January.
Notably, as per the new Panchayati Act, general-category candidates for panchayat polls were required to have a minimum qualification of completing Class X. Scheduled Caste and women aspirants were required to clear Class VIII while women from the SC category were eligible only if they have passed Class V.