Panchayat polls: Unaware, candidates from Jhajjar, Mahendragarh get police character certificate made

Tribune News Service

Ravinder Saini

Jhajjar, October 16

Over 8,000 candidates for the gram panchayat, block samiti and zila parishad elections have got police character certificates issued from the cops in Jhajjar and Mahendragarh districts even though these were not mandatory for contesting the elections.

Cops in both dists work overtime

• Interestingly, police personnel in both districts worked overtime to issue the certificates at the earliest
• In Jhajjar, special desks were set up in the open on the mini secretariat premises to fulfil the requirement
• Extra personnel were deputed in Mahendragarh to expedite the work
• The panchayat poll in both districts will be conducted in the first phase starting October 30

A futile exercise

chandigarh: Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh said there was no requirement of a police verification certificate by the candidates who were contesting for various posts in the elections of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The candidate just needs to provide a self-attested affidavit in which he must list all of the police cases that are related to him. He said the candidates were not required to give domicile certificates. Whoever was contesting the election, only his name was required to be registered in the voter list of the panchayat, panchayat samiti and zila parishad concerned. The State Election Commissioner said candidate would have to produce a no-dues certificate only. TNS

The issue came to the fore today when the State Election Commissioner (SEC) office clarified that no antecedents/character verification was required from the local police for filing nominations for the posts of panch, sarpanch, member of the panchayat samiti or zila parishad after it got information that the police had received a large number of applications for such certificates, said sources. On getting the clarification from the SEC, the authorities in both districts have now started educating the candidates that the police verification certificate is not mandatory for the polls,” said the sources, adding that ignorance forced the candidates to make rounds of the police offices to get the certificate.

Shakti Singh, DC, Jhajjar, said candidates were being told from the beginning that the police verification certificate was not mandatory for the elections, but the candidates were applying for it not paying any heed to the advice. JK Abhir, DC, Mahendragarh, said all Returning Officers had been instructed to make the candidates aware that domicile and police verifications certificates were not needed.

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