No polling in four villages of Jind district

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Hisar, November 2

Three villages of Jind district — Roj Khera, Chabri and Bhidtana — didn’t participate in the elections to the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) for the posts of sarpanch and panchayat member today.

In yet another village, Frain Khurd, residents said the post of sarpanch was reserved for the SC community, but they had no member of that community. Joginder Singh, outgoing sarpanch of the village, said as there was no eligible person to file the nomination papers, the election for the post of sarpanch could not be held. However, the posts of the panchayat members were contested in the village and voters cast their votes to elect seven panchayat members.

Peculiar reasons

• In Frain Khurd village, residents said the post of sarpanch was reserved for the SC community, but they had no member of that community.
• In a representation to the district administration, Roj Khera villagers said the post of sarpanch was reserved for women from the SC community. They said they had only four women from the community but they were not educated.

In Roj Khera village, outgoing sarpanch Randhir Singh said the villagers boycotted the election as no one filed the nomination papers for the post of sarpanch. In a representation to the district administration, the villagers said the post of sarpanch was reserved for women from the SC community. They said they had only four women from the community who were eligible voters but they were not educated and thus did not fulfil the minimum criteria fixed by the government. Besides, no one filed the nomination papers for the posts of panch.

The residents of Chabri and Bhidtana villages had already announced to boycott the elections in support of their demand for a road to connect the village with the national highway passing along their village. They also boycotted the elections to the zila parishad and block samiti.

In Jind district, 80.2 per cent polling was recorded in 300 villages that went to polls today. In Bhiwani district, 79.2 per cent electorate exercised their franchise to elect sarpanches and panches in 312 villages.