Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Panchayat General Elections in Haryana announced

CHANDIGARH, DEC 15
The Haryana State Election Commission has announced the schedule for the 5th Panchayat General Elections as per which Panchayat  elections in Haryana will be held in three phases — January 10, January 17  and January  24, 2016.
          The schedule for the 5th panchayat general elections was announced by the State Election Commissioner Mr Rajiv Sharma while addressing a press conference at Panchkula. With announcement of the elections, the model code of conduct has come into force in the area of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) where the polls will be conducted. The election process would be completed by February 15, 2016.
          He said that as the Supreme Court has upheld the new Panchati Raj Amendment Act – 2015, now the elections to the PRIs would be held as per the new Act. He said that the candidates who have already filed the nominations as per the amended Act need not to file fresh nominations,but have to file a fresh declrations or affidavit along with the required documents before the Returning Officer concerned during the period specified for the same.
                    He added that election programme has been announced for panches, sarpanches  of gram panchayats except for gram panchayat except for gram panchayat chhachraulli, Radhur, Sadhur of district Yamunanagar,Sudhiwas, Tosham of district Bhiwani, Chandu Budedha, Wazipur of district Gurgaon, Nissing (Rural) of district Karnal, Berwal Nandla of district Panchkula, Jakhal Mandi of district Fatehabad, Hassanpur of district Palwal, Samalkha of district Kurukshetra and Firozepur Jhirka (Rural) of district Mewat) and members of all Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads.
          Mr Sharma said that the poll to elect panches, sarpanches of gram panchayats and members of panchayat samitis would be held in three phases. There are a total of 6,198  gram panchayats, 126 panchayat samitis and 21 zila parishads in the State. Elections would be conducted for 416 members of 21  Zila Parishads,  3001 posts of 126 panchayat samitis, and 6,198 posts  and 62,492  posts of sarpanches and panches, respectively.
 The State Election Commissioner said that all preparations have been made to ensure the conduct of fair and peaceful elections. As many as 21,475 polling booths have been set up, of which 4,337 have been identified  as hyper sensitive and 4,159 as sensitive. He said that special arrangements would be made at these polling stations by the district administration concerned. He said that approval has also been given by the State Election Commission to conduct videography at hypersensitive polling booths.
Mr Sharma said that the notification for the first phase of the elections would be issued on December 17, that of phase two would be issued on December 23  and of phase three would be issued on December 30 , 2015.  He added that in the first phase, nominations could be filed from December 23 to December 29, 2015 and during the same period the affidavit or declarations would be furnished by the candidates to the concerned Returning Officers. Scrutiny of nomination papers would be held on December 30 and the last date of withdrawal would be January 1, 2016. Symbols to the contesting candidates would be allotted on January 1 and the list of contesting candidates would also be made public on the same day.
Similarly, in the second phase, notification would be issued on December 23, 2015. Nominations could be filed from December 30  to January 4, 2016 and during the same period the affidavit or declarations would be furnished by the candidates to the concerned Returning Officers. Scrutiny of nomination papers would be held on January 5, 2016 and the last date of withdrawal would be January 7, 2016. Symbols to the contesting candidates would be allotted on January 7 and the list of contesting candidates would also be made public on the same day. In the third phase, notification would be issued on December 30. Nominations could be filed from January 5 to January9 and during the same period the affidavit or declarations would be furnished by the candidates to the concerned Returning Officers. Scrutiny of nomination papers would be held on January 11, 2016 and the last date of withdrawal would be January 13, 2016. Symbols to the contesting candidates would be allotted on January 13 and the list of contesting candidates would also be made public on the same day.
Mr Sharma said while elections for sarpanch and members of zila parishad would be conducted through EVMs, ballot paper would be used for elections for panches and members of panchayat samitis. He added that it was for the first time that EVMs would be used for elections for members of panchayat samitis in districts Panchkula and Rewari. He said that counting of votes for the Panches and Sarpanches would be taken up on the same day at the polling stations itself, whereas, the counting of votes for election to the offices of Members Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad would be taken up on January 28, 2016 at the place specified by concerned District Election Officer (P). The  casting of ballot would be conducted from 7:30 am to  4 pm.
Mr Sharma said that 1,10,09,317 people were eligible to cast their ballot in these elections, of which 59,04,696 are men and 51,04,621 are women. More than one lakh workers would be deputed for the conduct of the election process. To ensure peaceful and secure conduct of elections in the State, requests have been sent to Director General of Police and Home Secretary to deploy personnel of Haryana Police, Haryana Armed Police and Home Guards.
He added that general and election expenditure supervisors would also be appointed. Officers of the level of senior Indian Administrative Services and Haryana Civil Services Officers would be appointed as general supervisors, and officers from the Excise and Taxation Department would be appointed as election expenditure supervisors.
Giving information about election expenses of candidates, Mr Sharma said that the Election Commission had increased the limit on election expenditure. The expenditure limit for panches has been increased to Rs 10,000, for gram panchayats with fewer than 15 members it has been increased to Rs 30,000 and for those with more than 15 members, it has been increased to Rs 50,000.
Similarly, Rs one lakh has been set as the expenditure limit for members of panchayat samitis and expenditure limit of Rs two lakh has been set for members of zila parishads. Mr. Sharma said that for a panch belonging to general category, the nomination fee would be Rs 100, and it would be Rs 40 for those belonging to Scheduled Castes or Backward Classes. Similarly, for sarpanches and members of panchayat samitis and zila parishads belonging to general category and Scheduled Castes or Backward Classes, it would be Rs 200 and Rs 100, Rs 300 and Rs 150 and Rs 400 and Rs 200, respectively.
In reply to a question, Mr Sharma said that however, election of Member  Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad could be contested on party symbol.  Three political parties namely Bahujan Samaj Party, SAD and CPIM have written to the Commission expressing their desire to contest election on party symbol. Regarding educational qualifications of the contesting candidates, Mr Sharma said that list of recognized schools have been uploaded on the website of Board of School Education Haryana. Apart from this, Education Department has been asked to depute a officer in the Commission office to verify the certificates of contesting candidates.
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