Expressing anguish at the passage of the Uttarakhand Panchayati Raj Amendment Act and its approval by governor of Uttarakhand, the Panchayat Janadhikar Manch, Uttarakhand has decided to take the issue to the High Court (HC).
The Manch has also vowed to undertake a massive awareness campaign in the state against the amendments in the act. Addressing media persons here on Friday, the senior Congress leader and convener of Manch, Jot Singh Bisht said that after approval of Governor all the citizens of Uttarakhand who have more than two children would become not eligible to contest Panchayat elections. “A person who has more than two children and is not even class VIII passed can become a member of parliament or member of legislative assembly but he or she cannot contest the Panchayat election.’’ Bisht added that with the passage of act, three different types of eligibility criteria one each for Panchayat, urban local bodies and assembly elections are now enforced in the state. He said that in the new law an educational qualification of class X has been made compulsory for general category candidates and class VIII of candidates of SC and ST category and shockingly no educational qualification criterion was kept for candidates belonging of OBC category.
Bisht claimed that the Manch has people from both the Congress and BJP and it is determined to fight for the maintaining the sanctity of 73rd constitution amendment.
He said that the Manch has nominated conveners in all the districts and the process of appointing block conveners is underway. The chief programme coordinator of Manch, Mathura Dutt Joshi and others were present in the programme.