Chandigarh: Haryana has announced the much awaited panchayat polls, merely a day after the assembly passed the Haryana Panchayati Raj Bill, making educational qualification and toilets at home mandatory for those contesting in the polls. The pre-requisites include class X certificates for general category and class VI-VII marksheets for women and SC candidates, functional toilets at home and payment of power bills. SC candidates for the post of 'Panch', should hold at least Class V marksheets. Those contesting, must also not be loan defaulters and should not have been chargesheeted by any court of law.
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar said, “It's being done to improve the quality of leadership and governance in panchayati raj institutions. This amendment will enable elected representatives to be more accountable, as they would no longer be able to cite illiteracy as an excuse.” The Punjab and Haryana high court's stay on Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Ordinance 2015 would not have any impact on the polls as the government has issued the election schedule according to Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill 2015. The tenure of the earlier panchayat ended on July 24.
