Haryana State Election Commission with the help of NIC (Haryana State Centre) has generated an online e-Dashboard system for obtaining various kinds of information, including receipt of nomination, and to ease the flow of information from Block and District to the State Election Commission, Haryana and provision in the core application to capture data from grassroots level.
State Election Commis-sioner, Rajeev Sharma said a decision to this effect has been taken to overcome the traditional system in which the details of the nomination were informed to the different election functionaries using FAX/e-mail and there was significant delay in communicating the information.
He said that the District, Block, Panchayat and Ward master of e-Panchayat area profiler are being used in the software. In software as back end database there is provision of capturing nomination information of Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, Sarpanch and Panch. The various parameters to be captured are ward number/gram panchayat, name, father’s name, address, gender, marital status, blood group, occupation, mobile number, date of birth, caste, educational qualification, annual income, Aadhar number, etc. and data is being fed at block and district levels. The nomination Dashboard displays the real time information of the nomination received, he added.
Sharma said that with the generation of e-Dashboard, nomination details are being filled directly from the district as well as from respective blocks, information is being used for dissemination of information to media and public and it can be accessed from Haryana State Election Commission’s website http://secharyana.gov.in.
He said that after the election process, the database of elected representatives can be generated using this information with a press of a button and later on this information can be used by various departments.
“The process of elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions 2015 is in full swing. The whole election process would be completed in three phases. The nomination process for the first phase of elections has been completed for electing the members of Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, Sarpanch and Panches,” he added.
Election Commission issues educational qualification
Ahead of the three-phase Panchayat polls, Haryana State Election Commission has issued a clarification regarding validity and verification of educational qualifications of candidates while filing nominations.
In a written communication to all District Election Officers (Panchayat), Sharma said that the Deputy Commissioner, Hisar had sought guidance from the Commission in this regard and the Commission had directed the Directorate of Secondary and Elementary Education to provide the necessary information.
He said that no clarification was required regarding those who have passed the matriculation examination from Board of School Education, Bhiwani or CBSE, New Delhi.
“The school leaving certificate issued by the government high school or senior secondary school of Haryana state may be treated valid.
“No clarification in this regard is required, but school leaving certificate issued by private schools should be countersigned by Block Education Officer/District Elementary Education Officer or District Education Officer concerned.”
Sharma said that the validity of certificates issued by State Education Boards of various states, open school board and other boards would be checked with reference to the list of recognised school boards issued by the Board of School Education Haryana.
For getting no dues certificates, Managing Director, UHBVN, Nitin Yadav, said 246 special counters or desks have been opened by the DISCOMs at sub-division level in all its operation circles throughout the state for this purpose. “So far, the Haryana Power DISCOMs have recovered Rs 30.60 crore as dues from these candidates before issuing them no dues certificate that was outstanding towards their rural domestic connections. Out of which UHBVN recovered power dues to the tune of Rs 14.18 crore and DHBVN Rs 16.42 crore, respectively,” he said.
Opposition unhappy with Qualification criteria for contesting polls
The Haryana Government’s decision to make minimum qualification criteria mandatory has come in for flak from the Opposition.
After fixing the minimum educational qualification for elections to the Panchayati Raj institutions in Haryana, the BJP government has decided to make the qualification criteria mandatory for contesting the polls to Urban local Bodies in the State as well.
The State Government decided to amend Section 13-A of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 and Section-8 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994 laying down some qualifications for contesting the Urban local Bodies polls.
As per the amendment, qualification has been prescribed as matriculation for all levels of the elected representatives of the Urban local Bodies.
Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar said that having elected representatives with qualified educational background will help further strengthen the democratic set up. Justifying this decision, Haryana Minister Anil Vij said minimum qualification criteria should be there even for MlAs and MPs.
Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda questioned it, asking, “why should there be any biasIJ If minimum educational qualification criteria has to be made applicable, then it should be there for legislators and parliamentarians first”. Slamming the decision, he said it has come at a time when the country is celebrating 125th birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar, architect of the Indian constitution.
“They (Constitution-makers) gave equal right to everyone. This will deprive so many people from contesting, which is against sentiments of constitution-makers,” the Congress leader said.
Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar said the government’s move was against the spirit of the constitution. “It is unconstitutional and undemocratic. Imposing educational qualification to contest any election, especially at grassroot level, will deprive large number of people from contesting,” Tanwar said.
Haryana’s main Opposition INlD has also criticised the decision. Its state president Ashok Arora said, “It is like depriving people of their fundamental rights. It is a wrong decision which they have taken and is against people’s sentiments. A minimum educational qualification for women and Scheduled caste candidates have been fixed as middle class and for SC women candidates as 5th class.
Batting for the minimum educational qualification for the Urban local Bodies, Vij said, “this is a very good beginning, we have sown the seed and its benefit will be there for everyone to see in future”.
Asked about the stiff opposition to the move by the opposition parties, he said, “those who are opposing are doing so for their vested interest. They take the plea that educated candidates will be less and many will be unable to contest. I think they are trying to rake up this point without valid reasoning. Even the Supreme court upheld our decision to fix class Xth as minimum qualification for candidates running for the Panchayat elections.”