Following the Supreme Court orders regarding Panchayat polls in Haryana, State Election Commissioner Rajeev Sharma on Tuesday said that the programme for the conduct of general elections of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Haryana has been put on hold for now.
He said that in view of the orders of Supreme Court, Haryana Election Commission is not in position to continue with the process and has accordingly decided to put on hold all the activities in pursuant to Commission’s notification dated September 8, 2015 and all other notifications/orders issued subsequently.
The model code of conduct which came into force from September 8 was also withdrawn by the Election Commission on Tuesday.
In a notification issued on Tuesday by Haryana Election Commission, it was also stated that the nomination papers received in respect of Zila Parishad and for first phase elections of Panches, Sarpanches and Members Panchayat Samitis and for the second phase of Panches, Sarpanches and Members Panchayat Samitis, will be kept intact in the office of Returning Officer for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samitis concerned and in the case of Gram Panchayat nomination papers shall be kept intact in the office of Block Development and Panchayat Officer concerned till further orders.
The process of filing nominations for the first phase of the elections had ended on Saturday, voting for which was scheduled to be held on October 4. In the second phase, nominations were to be filed from September 22 to 29. As many as 94,128 nomination papers were received for 29,603 various posts in the first phase of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) elections. 59,019 nominations were received for 25,532 posts of Panch, of which 23,328 nominations are of women, whereas 23,301 nominations were received for 2,517 posts of Sarpanch of which 8,932 nominations are of women in the first phase.
Apart from this, 7,250 nominations were received for 1,186 posts of Panchayat Samiti member, of which 2,585 nominations were of women and 4,558 nominations were received for 368 posts of Zila Parishad member, of which 1,869 nominations were of women.
Notably, there are a total of 6,197 gram Panchayats, 123 Panchayat samitis and 20 zila parishads in the State. And, the elections was to be conducted in three phases for 393 posts of members of 20 zila parishads, 2,932 posts of 123 panchayat samitis, and 6,197 and 62,471 posts of sarpanches and panches, respectively.