A first: 13 villages in Karnal to get separate panchayats

Parveen Arora

Karnal, November 3

As many as 13 villages of the district will get their separate panchayats for the first time. These villages have been given the status of the gram panchayats.

Earlier, they had joint panchayats with other villages. Now, the number of panchayats has increased to 395 from 382. Besides, in the current panchayat polls, the district has added one more panchayat samiti, taking the number to nine. The Nissing panchayat samiti has been separated from the Chirao block. Earlier, they had a joint panchayat samiti. The elections for the zila parishad and panchayat samiti will be held on November 9 and for sarpanches and panches on November 12.

“The district administration data has revealed that Nanhera has been made a new panchayat in the Indri block, while Gobindgarh in the Nilokheri block after being separated from Naryana village,” said Rajbir Khundia, District Development and Panchayat Officer.

Similarly, Bohli village was given the tag of a panchayat. Earlier, it had a joint panchayat with Bohla village in the Nilokheri block. From Pakhana, a fresh panchayat had been made, namely Dayalpura Chamankhera, in the Nilokheri block, he added.

Sadarpur had also been given a new panchayat after taking some area of Baras and some of Shamali village in the Nissing block, Rajbir added.

“Bharatpur, Darulama Titarpur, Basi Akbarpur, Malikpir Gadian and Prem Nagar have also also made panchayats in the Gharaunda block. In the Kunjpura block, Kundalkalan has been made a new panchayat after being separated from Bazidpur.” In the Karnal block, Dabrakipar had been made a panchayat from Dabarki village, while Nagla Farm from Shekhpura village, he added.

DC Anish Yadav said they had made arrangements for a fair and transparent elections. “Of the 395 gram panchayats, 12 have already been elected unopposed. Besides, four sarpanches have been elected uncontested. For one sarpanch, they received only one nomination, which was rejected. Now, the elections for the post of the sarpanch will be held in 378 villages.”

Notably, there are 3,901 wards for the post of panch and 4,169 candidates are in the fray. Of 3,901, panches in 1,976 wards have been elected unopposed, while 72 posts are vacant as either their nominations were rejected or nobody applied, the DC added.

For 25 wards of the zila parishad, there were 239 candidates in the fray, he said. “Moreover, there are 200 wards for the panchayat samiti and four of the members have been elected unopposed. Now, the elections will be held at 196 wards, where 880 candidates are contesting.”