Rajasthan Government Moves To Reintroduce Minimum Educational Qualifications For Panchayati Raj And Urban Local Body Election Candidates

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government is working to implement educational qualifications for the candidates of upcoming Panchayati Raj and urban local body elections.

Illiterate candidates may be barred from contesting

The government intends to disqualify illiterate individuals from contesting elections for positions such as councilor, sarpanch, mayor, chairperson, municipal president, pradhan, Zila Parishad member, and Panchayat Samiti member.

The minister for Urban Development and Housing, Jhabar Singh Kharra and the minister for Panchayati Raj, Madan Dilwar have sent proposals regarding this to the chief minister for approval.

The proposals suggest a minimum educational qualification of secondary education for Sarpanch and secondary or senior secondary for councilors.

Ministers send proposal to Chief Minister

Minister for Urban Development and Housing Jhabar Singh Kharra said that a proposal to implement minimum educational qualifications for the candidates of urban local bodies and Panchayat Raj electricians has been sent to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, as many organizations demanded this.

After the consent of the CM, the Panchayati Raj Act and the Municipal Corporations Act will be amended accordingly.

Second attempt to enforce education norms

This is the second time the exercise of implementing educational qualifications is being carried out in the state. The first attempt was made during the Vasundhara Raje government when minimum educational qualifications of VIIIth and Xth standard were fixed for Sarpanch and Councilor, respectively. The same qualification was required for heads of urban local bodies and councilors.

The Congress had strongly opposed the implementation of educational qualifications in local body and Panchayati Raj elections and challenged this in the court as well but couldn't get relief. Later, after assuming the power in 2018, the Congress removed the provision of minimum educational qualification.