Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Amendment Bill passes on eligibility for candidates
With the pass of these bill Rajasthan became the first State in the country to fix a minimum educational qualification for contesting elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
'Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill-2015' which were introduced as ordinance on the eve of panchayat elections in January-February 2015 and faced ire of Opposition Congress and NGOs, were passed by voice vote without any hurdle.
Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (amendment) Bill, 2015, which makes Class VIII pass mandatory for the post of sarpanch — except in tribal reserved areas, where the minimum qualification is Class V — and Class X for Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti elections.
The amendments to Section 19 of the Rajasthan Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 also make a functional toilet mandatory in the house of a contestant.
Replying to a debate lasted for over three hours, Gulab Chand Kataria who is the Home Minister of state, assured the House that both amendments in the Panchayati Raj Bills are very much progressive laws as evident from the recently-held Panchayat elections where every elected member was educated and no one was illiterate for the first time in the history of the nation.
Defending the provisions of the bill, Kataria said it would determine a minimum educational qualifications for persons contesting elections for panchayats.
Any person willing to contest panchayat elections, must have a functional sanitary toilet in his or her house, and any of his or her family members do not defecate in the open, advocating the necessity of Clean India movement, Kataria said.
Since the Rajasthan Assembly was not in session and circumstances existed which rendered it necessary for the Governor to take immediate action, he, therefore, promulgated the respective ordinance on December 8, 2014.
