13 Nov : The Punjab govt has amended the State Panchayat Election Rules to enable the SC/BC panches to contest the elections to the posts of gram sarpanches on reserve seats without any proposer and seconder.
"It was mandatory for any elected panch to have a proposer and a seconder from the quorum/majority of elected panches in order to contest the election of a village sarpanch," Rural Development, Panchayats and Elections Minister Ranjit Singh Brahampura said in Chandigarh on Thursday.
But in more than 150 villages in the state, the elections to the posts of gram sarpanches on reserve seats could not be held due to lack of quorum/majority as the reserved panch elected to the posts could not muster the support of a proposer and a seconder according to the Section 45 of Punjab Panchayat Election Rules 1994, Brahampura said.
"In order to provide due reservations to the downtrodden in the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), the department has issued a notification amending the rules in this regard so as to enable the SC/BC panches to contest the elections without any proposer and seconder," he said.
He also directed all the Deputy Commissioners of the state to hold the election meetings of reserved gram panchayats within two weeks so that the election process to such villages could be completed at the earliest.