Standing firm on its stand to hand over the grass root level democracy to literates only, Haryana Government on Monday succeeded in getting The Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015 passed in the Haryana Assembly. Despite a walk out by the Congress and opposition by the main opposition party INlD, the Bill sailed through the test of Assembly comfortably.
With the passage of the Bill, the minimum qualification for contesting the Panchayat Election is fixed. In General Category Matriculation is the minimum qualification for contesting elections, but for Women and Schedule Castes the minimum qualification is kept 8th pass. Women belonging to Scheduled Caste categories have been given further concession and they will be eligible with a qualification of 5th class.
Other amendments like imposing restriction on contesting election for a person who is charged with a criminal case for an offence, punishable with imprisonment of 10 years or more. Submission of self declaration by the candidate of having a functional toilet at his house, Submission of NOC by the candidate about non-arrears of electricity bills or any kind of loans, were passed by majority vote.
Ex-Minister and Congress MlA from Palwal Karan Singh Dalal had proposed certain amendments in the bill and during the 90 minutes debate on the bill, the amendments were discussed in detail. leader of Opposition Abhey Singh Chautala supported the amendments moved by Dalal, saying 76% people in rural areas are still not 10th pass. He also said that due to proposed amendments, people in Haryana are marrying qualified girls from other states to be eligible to contest elections which is not a healthy practice for the people of Haryana.
Demanding a secret ballot on the bill, senior Congress leader Raghuvir Singh Kadiyan said that a number of BJP legislators are also against the proposed amendments in the original Act. He called on the Speaker to take a secret vote on the bill and challenging the treasury benches he said that if the ruling party wished to test the admissibility of these amendments among its own members then a secret vote will make everything clear.
Answering the concerns raised by the opposition, Development and Panchayat Minister Om Parkash Dhankar presented some figures before the house. He said that the house does not need to worry much on the pre-condition of education, as in the existing Panchayats, 81% member of the panchayats were recorded to be literates. Stressing the need to bring educated people in Panchayats, he said that a Sarpanch has to see 29 kinds of Jobs these days and only a literate person can take care of such responsibilities. He said , in the next five years Panchayats in Haryana are to be allocated Rs 2292 crore from the central grant and for appropriate use of these funds literate people are required.
Talking on pre-condition of functional toilets at home of contesting candidates, Development and Panchayat Minister Om Parkash Dharkar said that with this decision, 7000 news toilets are expected to be constructed in the state, and such a development will be beneficial for health of people and give a boost to Swachh Bharat Mission.