Haryana mulling making class XII mandatory for MC polls

Chandigarh, Dec 21: After fixing the minimum educational qualification for elections to the Panchayati Raj institutions in Haryana, the Manohar Lal Khattar government is mulling making class XII qualification mandatory for contesting the municipal corporation polls in the state.

The Haryana Advocate General's office has made the suggestion that educational qualification for people contesting for municipal corporations be fixed as Class XII and for the committees and councils, it should be matriculation.

Advocate General B R Mahajan said that an ordinance would be promulgated to amend the existing Acts. The Supreme Court had on December 10 upheld the Haryana government's decision to fix class Xth as minimum qualification for candidates running for the Panchayat elections.

The judgement upheld the validity of Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, which fixes matriculation as essential qualification for general candidates contesting panchayat polls, while the qualification for women (general) and Scheduled Caste candidates has been fixed as class VIII.

However, in case of a woman candidate belonging to the Scheduled Caste category and contesting election for the post of Panch (Panchayat head), the minimum qualification would be Class V.

Chief Minister Khattar had announced that since elections to the urban local bodies (ULB) were to be held for 42 municipalities out of the 78 next year, the state government has decided to fix the educational qualification of those contesting the polls by bringing an ordinance.

Khattar had said the educational qualification in case of ULBs would not be less than the qualifications fixed for the candidates contesting elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions. Haryana has nine municipal corporations--Gurgaon, Faridabad, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak, Hisar, Panchkula, Ambala and Yamunanagar.

Besides, there are 19 municipal councils and 50 municipal committees. The multi-phase Panchayat polls in Haryana are scheduled to be held in January 2016.

PTI