Chhattisgarh to do away with mandatory educational qualification for Panchayat polls

Presently, contestants are required to have passed 5th standard for the post of Panch and 8th standard for the posts above it. The present law also doesn’t provide for nomination of disabled people in the three-tier panchayat raj institutions.

Congress government in Chhattisgarh has paved the way for greater representation in state’s Panchayati raj system by deciding to do away with the minimum educational qualification requirement for candidates seeking to hold office and insertion of a provision to nominate specially abled persons to Panchayats.

Chhattisgarh government cleared amendments to Panchayati Raj Act on Saturday making it more inclusive (HT Photo/File)

According to the proposed amendments in the Chhattisgarh Panchayati Raj Act 1993, any aspiring candidate will now only need to be literate-- know how to read and write. The amendments were cleared by the cabinet on Saturday and will now be placed before the Assembly for passage.

Presently, contestants are required to have passed 5th standard for the post of Panch and 8th standard for the posts above it. The present law also doesn’t provide for nomination of disabled people in the three-tier panchayat raj institutions.

Describing the term ‘literate’, a senior IAS official working with the chief minister’s office said, “ The person contesting should know how to write and to read only… no educational qualification is now mandatory.”

The cabinet has also decided to establish two new universities in the state, one for Horticulture and Forestry, to be named after Mahatma Gandhi and another in Raigarh to be named after late Congress leader Nand Kumar Patel.