Jaipur: After two children norm, grass root political workers now have another hurdle to clear for contesting panchayat elections. The BJP government in Rajasthan has decided to fix minimum qualification as condition for aspiring candidates.
Governor Kalyan Singh approved the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Ordinance-2014 after which it was notified on by the state government.
Rajasthan will hold panchayat polls for Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, Sarpanch and Up Sarpanch in January next year. The polls are expected to be announced early next week.
As per the provision, for contesting the Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti polls, a contestant should have the minimum qualification of secondary education (Class 10) from the state board or any approved institution or board. To contest the Sarpanch elections, a candidate should be Class VIII pass from any school (general category). However in the scheduled area of panchayat, the contestant should have passed Class 5 from a school to become a Sarpanch.
However, the political wo-rkers on ground are not very happy with the new eligibility criteria because the new rules will render a large number of them ineligible for panchayat elections. They also point out that there are no such eligibility criteria for elections to state Assemblies and Parliament.
“An illiterate can become MLA or MP but can’t be a ward panch in a village. Isn’t this a joke? The two child norm is also not appl-icable on those contesting assembly and parliamentary election, why this double standards,” a ruling party member asked.
