Chandigarh, September 1: A few days before the expected notification of the panchayat elections in Punjab, Congress leaders from Zira have moved a petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court against a Punjab Cabinet decision to conduct elections on the basis of district-level reservation roster.
Terming the amendment to the Punjab Reservation for the Offices of the Sarpanches of Gram Panchayats, Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Panchayat Samitites and Zila Parishads Rules, 1994, as arbitrary and unpractical, three former sarpanches — Gursewak Singh, Sukhwant Singh and Jagjeet Singh — have filed a civil writ petition for staying the government’s decision. A double Bench of the High Court has issued notice to the state for September 9.
Citing the example of Ferozepore district, the petitioners said the Zira block has 36.77 per cent Scheduled Caste population and similarly Guru Har Sahai, another block, has 61.83 per cent SC population making the average SC population to 47.9 per cent. In this manner, Zira block, having 122 villages, comprising 114 gram panchayats, shall get 55 seats reserved for SCs instead of 42. As per the law, one third seats shall be reserved for the women candidates, which bring them to 38 seats. After the amendment, seats available for the general category will be 21 only, whereas it was 34 earlier.
Source Tribune India
