Haryana elects young sarpanches in PRI polls

Chandigarh: Haryana will now have a large number of young sarpanches as people have largely voted for them as village heads in the third and final phase of the elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).

The average age of those elected as Sarpanch is 34 years, an official spokesperson said here on Monday.

He further said that in the third phase of elections to the PRIs, which were held on Sunday, the average age of elected Sarpanches in districts of Mewat and Palwal is 33 years, which is the lowest.

In Rewari district, the average age is 40 years, which is the highest.

Besides, the average age of elected Sarpanches is 39 in Ambala district, 38 in Bhiwani, 36 in Fatehabad, 37 in Hisar, 38 in Jind, 35 in Kaithal, 36 in Karnal, 37 in Kurukshetra, 34 in Mahendergarh, 35 in Panipat, 39 in Rohtak, 35 in Sirsa, 38 in districts Sonipat and Yamunanagar.

In the third phase of the elections, 181 elected Sarpanches are either graduate or have higher educational qualification. They include 11 from Ambala, 16 from Bhiwani, 10 from Fatehabad, nine from Hisar, eight from Jind, 11 from Kaithal, 22 from Karnal, 12 from Kurukshetra, five from Mahendergarh, 14 from Mewat, seven from Palwal, seven from Panipat, four from Rewari, four from Rohtak, 16 from Sirsa, 10 from Sonipat and 15 from Yamunanagar. He also said that the 205 newly-elected village heads were class 12 pass, whereas, 981 and 277 sarpanches were educated till class 10 and 8 respectively.

The spokesperson said 684 woman sarpanches and 959 male sarpanches were elected in the third phase of these elections.

Notably, the Supreme Court had on December 10 last year upheld the Haryana government's decision to fix class ten as minimum qualification for candidates running for the Panchayat elections.

The judgement had upheld the validity of Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, which fixed matriculation as essential qualification for general candidates contesting Panchayat polls, while the qualification for women (general) and Scheduled Caste candidates had been fixed as Class VIII.

However, in case of a woman candidate belonging to SC category contesting election for the post of Panch, the minimum qualification had been fixed as Class V pass.