Guwahati, March 14 : Illiterate person would not be contested in the panchayat elections in Assam.
Assam Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed the Assam Panchayat (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and according to the new amendment bill, illiterate person will not be contested in the panchayat elections in the state from now.
Apart from it, who does not have a functional sanitary toilet in his or her residence will not eligible for contesting panchayat polls in the state.
The new bill also provisions that, who has more than two living children from a single or multiple partners will not be eligible for contesting elections.
The minimum educational qualifications for general category have been fixed for contesting panchayat elections.
For the Gaon Panchayat Member, every candidate of general category will be needed to pass Class VI examination from an educational institution.
In case of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), More Other Backward Classes (MOBC) shall not be a bar for contesting election or to be elected for the post of Gaon Panchayat Member.
On the other hand, who has not passed Class 10 or equivalent examination under any council or board recognized by the state or the central government will not eligible for contesting for the post of Gaon Panchayat President, Anchalik Panchayat Member and minimum Class 12 pass is fixed for contesting for the post of Zila Parishad Member.
In case of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), More Other Backward Classes (MOBC), minimum educational qualification shall be Class VIII examination passed for Gaon Panchayat President, Anchalik Panchayat Member and Class 10 passed for Zila Parishad Member.
Assam Panchayat and Rural development minister Naba Doley had placed the bill in the assembly.
On the other hand, the Assam government informed the house that, it will introduce a resolution this week in the Assembly and will request the Centre to fix minimum educational qualification for candidates to contest Assembly and Parliament elections.
Assam Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, we will move an official resolution in next 2-3 days to have minimum qualifications for Assembly and Parliamentary polls.
The Assam minister further said that, if needed an all-party delegation team will meet the President, Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Opposition leader that there should be a model educational qualification.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
