Implementation of edu-norm to face trouble in Mewat

Pradeep Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8

The implementation of a Haryana Government’s decision to introduce mandatory educational qualification for candidates contesting next month’s elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) is set to set to face teething troubles in certain areas, especially in the backward Mewat district.

With women’s literacy rate pegged at 66.77 per cent in rural Haryana, there will be a “shortage” of eligible candidates for the panchayat elections because 33 per cent of the seats are reserved for women.

In fact, the educational criterion will render a substantial number of sarpanches and panches in the men’s category “ineligible” to contest elections.

Mewat district, where literacy rate especially that of women’s is abysmally low, will be adversely affected on account of the introduction of the new educational criterion. “Of 9.49 lakh persons in Mewat district, 62,858 have studied till Class X and beyond. There is hardly any women eligible to contest in the district’s Khanpur-Jalalpur block,” Nuh MLA Zakir Hussain told The Tribune.

Development Minister Om Prakash Dhankar, however, claimed: “In view of a high literacy rate in the state, the election of educated candidates to gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads will prove to be a catalyst for faster and sustainable development of villages.”

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, meanwhile, asserted today the educational criterion would serve the system well and the Opposition’s concerns were misplaced.

The Haryana Assembly yesterday passed a landmark legislation making educational qualification and toilets in houses mandatory for candidates contesting the PRI poll. Haryana became the second state after Rajasthan to fix educational and other qualifications for the candidates.

The Bill fixed Class X as the qualification for general candidates and middle standard for women (general) and Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.

Educated brides in demand: Abhay 

Leader of the Opposition Abhay Chautala yesterday claimed in the Assembly that men were procuring “educated brides”, especially from Andhra Pradesh, to tide over the shortage of candidates for the PRI elections in Mewat district. “Since there is a shortage of educated women candidates for contesting panchayat elections, the educated brides are in great demand in Mewat in the run-up to the elections. This is a dangerous trend,” Abhay said while opposing the new norm.

Former sarpanch files plea in High Court 

Hisar: Rajesh Jakhar of the district's Muklan on Tuesday filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging a legislation that made minimum educational qualification mandatory for candidates contesting the PRI elections. He was the Muklan sarpanch from 2005 to 2010. His mother, Nimbo Devi, is the sitting sarpanch. Jakhar had, on August 21, got a stay from the High Court on a notification that made minimum educational qualification mandatory for aspiring candidates. “Since the state has passed the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the stay is no longer effective,” he said. “As per the new norm, my mother is no more eligible to contest. My wife, Ved Wanti, is aspiring to contest from zila parishad's ward number 10 reserved for women. Since she has not cleared Class VIII, she is ineligible to contest,” Jakhar said. — Deepender Deswal