After making minimum educational qualifications as a prerequisite for contesting panchayat polls in Haryana alongwith other eligibility criteria, the Haryana Government would soon bring an Ordinance to fix educational qualifications for candidates contesting State’s Urban local Bodies (UlBs).
Addressing a press conference here, Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Thursday said that since elections to the UlBs were be held for 42 municipalities out of the 79, the State Government has decided to fix educational qualification for the candidates contesting the elections by bringing an ordinance.
The educational qualification in case of UlBs would not be less than the qualifications fixed for the candidates contesting elections to PRIs, said he.
The Chief Minister also announced that honorarium of representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) would be increased in keeping with their qualifications under the new Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015.
While hailing the decision of the Supreme Court which upheld the amendments made by the Haryana Government to the Act, the CM said the honorarium would be increased and the hike would be announced later. Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act 2015, stipulates that general-category candidates for panchayat polls must have a minimum qualification of completing class 10. Scheduled caste and women aspirants are required to clear class 8 while women from the SC category will be eligible only if they have passed class 5.
Apart from mandatory educational qualifications for the candidates, the law makes it mandatory that poll candidates have a functional toilet at home. Anyone found defaulting in payment of agricultural loan and electricity bills will also be disqualified to contest the polls.
Asked whether the government would bring a similar ordinance for MPs or MlAs, the Chief Minister clarified that this subject lay in the jurisdiction of Parliament. “However, if Parliament decides to consider any such proposal, we would support it”, he added.
In reply to another question, he said that the State Government had already announced that such villages as unanimously elected panchyats would be given a grant of Rs 11 lakh whereas villages electing Sarpanch and Panch unanimously would be given a grant of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, respectively.
The Chief Minister said that electricity dues exceeding Rs 20 crore had been recovered on account of the outstanding bills during the first phase of nominations for elections to PRIs. Similarly, recovery of over Rs 90 crore on account of Cooperative Bank loans has been made during this period.
When asked if the panchayat elections are likely to be announced after December 25 in view of State Government’s function, the Chief Minister replied that this would not hamper any model code of conduct. And, an immediate possible date would be announced for the polls by the State Election Commission, he added.