Jammu mayor Rajinder Sharma on Wednesday batted strongly for making graduation mandatory as the minimum qualification for elected representatives to contest elections.
The general House of the Jammu municipal corporation (MC) passed a resolution, which was moved by Sharma, to make graduation as minimum qualification for those who would contest elections for councillors of the municipality.
Sharma said the resolution had been sent to the Jammu and Kashmir administration and they were awaiting its implementation.
However, he added, it has to get approval from the administration first and the Election Commission of India then before the graduation criteria becomes a rule.
“We urged the central government to take cognisance of the resolution passed by the Jammu MC general body and enact a law to make it mandatory for elected representatives that they can contest elections if they are graduates,” Sharma told reporters in Jammu.
“It is probably first such initiative across the country that a municipal body has passed such resolution,” he added.