Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today hailed the Supreme Court judgement upholding the law which fixed minimum educational qualification for contesting panchayat polls and announced that honorarium of representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) would be increased in keeping with their qualifications under the Act.
"The honorarium would be increased (in keeping with Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015) and the hike would be announced later," Khattar told reporters here.
In another signification decision, Khattar said that since elections to the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) were be held in 42 municipalities out of the 79, the state government has also 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," he stated.
Khattar said the sole aim of the state government in bringing the new Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015 was to ensure educated and quality leadership in the rural areas.
He urged the people to elect good representatives.
Asked if the amendment would help in increasing the BJP's base in the rural areas, he said that panchayat elections were not contested on party symbols.
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 villages electing unanimously 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, the process of which was earlier put on hold in view of the Supreme Court hearing the writ petition.
Similarly, recovery of over Rs 90 crore on account of Cooperative Bank loans has been made during this period, he informed.
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On the Supreme Court verdict, Khattar said today is a historic day for the strengthening of the democratic system.
The Chief Minister said that with a view to strengthening the Panchayati Raj system and giving good governance to the people, the state government had decided to make amendments in the Panchayati Raj Act.
While describing the amendment to the Panchayati Raj Act as a progressive step, the Chief Minister said the opposition parties raised a lot of hue and cry over this move and went on to describe the government as inexperienced and lacking in knowledge about the rules.
Without naming anyone, he said that at the behest of the Opposition, some people also filed a writ petition against the amendment in the Act.
"..Finally the apex court has given its verdict in favour of the state government. The new Act is in the interest of rural areas as educated people would step into the system and help in minimizing administrative irregularities," he pointed out.
Under the new Act, matriculation is the essential qualification for general candidates contesting the panchayat elections. For women (general) and Scheduled Caste candidates, essential qualification is middle standard. The educational qualification for women SC candidates would be class V passed.
Besides, persons against whom charges have been framed by the competent court for criminal offences punishable by not less than 10 years imprisonment would not be allowed to contest the elections until they are acquitted by the court.
Similarly, cooperative loan defaulters would also be debarred from contesting the elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. It is mandatory for the candidates to have a functional toilet at home and payment slips of the power bills.
Khattar also announced that as many as 200 Gram Sachivalayas would be inaugurated on the occasion of 'Good Governance Day' on December 25, 2015 to ensure that various people-centric services reached every door-step.
Besides, 60 citizen-centric services of 15 departments, boards and corporations would also be launched the same day. The facility of Common Service Centres (CSCs) would also be provided in about 2500 villages by March, 2016.
Presently, 23 e-services are being provided through the CSCs and more services would be added on December 25.
It has been decided the social security pension for the month of January, 2016 would be directly deposited into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. So far, 20.5 lakh out of 22 lakh beneficiaries have opened their bank accounts. Those who could not, have been asked to do so to enable them to get their pension into their account.
