Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the Assam cabinet has given its approval to amend certain provisions of the Assam Panchayat Act. These amendments will introduce electronic voting machines (EVMs) for panchayat elections in the state and also establish provisions to disqualify elected representatives for violating the legal age of marriage, he said.
Sarma said that the amended provisions will include the constitution of a district delimitation commission to decide the size of the constituencies for zilla parishad, anchalik parishads and gaon panchayats.
Categorisation of districts will be done based on population
The Chief Minister said that the categorisation of the districts will be done based on population, and subsequently, the gaon panchayats (village councils) will be reorganized to align with these changes.
The proposed amendment will also fix minimum educational qualifications for members of different levels of panchayats. Members of gaon panchayats will be required to have a minimum qualification of matriculation (10th grade), while anchalik (block) and zilla (district) parishad members will need to have passed the higher secondary (12th grade) examination. However, members belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and backward castes will also need to pass the matriculation examination to be eligible for these positions.
EVMs will be introduced in panchayat polls
''EVMs will be introduced in panchayat polls. Panchayat elected representatives, if found to have violated the legal marriage age will be disqualified and members of political parties are also liable to be disqualified under the anti-defection law," Sarma said.
Sarma said that the district delimitation commission, as per the proposed amendment, will comprise the district commissioner as its chairperson, the chief executive officer of the zilla parishad as the member secretary and the election officer as member. Political symbols for elections will be introduced for zilla parishad and anchalik parishads and there will be no party symbols for candidates for gaon panchayat poll, he said.
President of gaon panchayat will be elected from among gram panchayat members
The president of gaon panchayat will be elected from among the 10 gram panchayat members and a no-confidence motion cannot be initiated for the first two and half years of the term of the president and vice president. The audit of zilla parishad accounts will be done by the Assam accountant general and members may be allotted some departments for monitoring and supervision, he said.
The zilla parishad president will nominate members to supervise and monitor the progress of activities of different departments at the district level as decided by the government, Sarma added. The state level recruitment commission will conduct the Grade III and Grade IV recruitments in the Panchayat, he added.
(With PTI inputs)
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