As many 30 per cent of villages in Shahkot assembly constituency in Jalandhar district have elected their panchayats unanimously. Out of the total 234 panchayats, 70 have elected their representatives, including the sarpanch, panch, before polls, scheduled to be held on December 30.
With this, the panchayats have not only become eligible for the state government’s grant of Rs three lakh for choosing their panchayat unanimously, the candidates have also saved on the money they would spend on contesting the elections.
As per the State Government’s policy, if any village elects their panchayats unanimously, the Government would give the body a grant of Rs three lakh.
Padmashri environmentalist Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal has all along been pressing upon the people to elect their House unanimously.
Only days before, Seechewal village has chosen a music scholar and nine-time gatka gold medallist Tejinder Singh, just 27-year-old, as their sarpanch — choosing a sarpanch for the fourth time in a row.
Seechewal’s campaign was actively supported by Shahkot’s Congress MLA Hardev Singh Laddi Sherowalia who have been encouraging the villagers to go for unanimous elections instead of entering into prevalent election process which results in “unnecessary expenditure”.
To elect the panchayat unanimously, a meeting of villagers is held at the village level, and the names for the posts of sarpanch and as panchyat members were shortlisted. After this, the selected persons file their nomination papers in the office of the concerned Returning Officer (RO) as required under the Panchyati Raj Act, 1994, and Punjab Panchayat Election Rules, 1994.
After scrutiny of the papers, when RO finds that there are single contenders for each such posts, the elections of such panchyats are considered unanimous and no elections were held in these villages.
NOMINATIONS TO BE SCRUTINIZED TODAY
The State Election Commission would scrutinise the nominations papers on Thursday, December 20, after the process for filing nomination papers for December 30 polls ended on Wednesday.
The date for withdrawal of the nominations would be December 21, which would also be the date for allotting the election symbols to the candidates.
The voting would be held on December 30, from 8 am till 4 pm and counting of votes would be held same day after completion of election process.
SAD CONDEMNS CONG GOVT FOR VITIATING ATMOSPHERE BEFORE POLLS
SAD core committee on Wednesday passed a resolution in its meeting, presided over by party chief Sukhbir Badal, condemning the Congress Government for vitiating the atmosphere in the State prior to the panchayat elections by resorting to large scale irregularities.
The resolution stated that the Congress Government had murdered democracy by directing the officials to function as per whims and fancies of party legislators and leaders.
“Though the SAD is not contesting the panchayat elections on the party symbol, party workers aligned with it are not allowed to enter the government offices to file their nominations and are not being given no due certificates,” read the resolution.
It also noted that the State Election Commission (SEC) was failing in its responsibility to hold free and fair elections.
AAP TO MEET SEC AGAINST CONGRESS LEADERS’ HOOLIGANISM
Raising the issue of hooliganism by the Congress leaders in the process of Panchayat elections in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday said that the people of Punjab will not bow down before the goons of the ruling party and will choose their representatives freely.
“Congress will have to pay the price of hooliganism during Panchayti elections in upcoming 2019 general election and people will reject the dictatorial behaviour of Congress leaders,” said AAP’s core committee chairman and Budhlada MLA Principal Budhram.
He said that the Congress leaders are working on the lines of Akali leaders to rob the rights of people of state.
Principal Budhram said that the Congress leaders have forced the administration to implement the faulty reservation policy in panchayat elections that suits them. The faulty policy resulted in violating the caste equations in many villages and rights of general, SC and BC candidates were robbed by the government, he said.
Principal Budhram said that AAP had also raised the issue of faulty reservation in Punjab Vidhan Sabha but to no avail. “AAP delegation will meet the State Election Commission on the issue of Panchayat elections,” he declared.