M A I N   N E W S

Punjab panchayat, Zila Parishad poll set to be delayed
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Panchayats’ status elevated The state government has announced elevation of the status of three village panchayats — Guru Har Sahai, Bhai Rupa and Nadala — to nagar panchayats These nagar panchayats would now become part of the Local Bodies Department They will cease to be part of the Rural Development and Panchayats Department Now a fresh delimitation exercise will have to be carried out to elect members of the zila parishads and panchayat samities in the districts where new nagar panchayats have been created

Chandigarh, April 24
Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti and village panchayat elections, which were to be held next month, are set to be postponed for some weeks. An official announcement in this regard is expected to be made tomorrow as, because of a holiday, offices were closed today. There are 22 Zila Parishads, 145 Panchayat Samities and 13,110 village panchayats in the state.

The state government today approached the State Election Commission and requested him to postpone the elections in view of the ongoing harvesting season. The demand was made in this regard by the Congress, the main opposition party.

“I spoke to the State Election Commissioner SS Brar this morning to request him to postpone the elections”, said Surjit Singh Rakhra, Rural Development and Panchayats Minister. Though he did not comment for how many days or weeks the elections would be postponed, these would be completed within the legally permissible limit, he said.

The polling for the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections was to be held on May 12 and the filing of the nomination papers was to begin in the first week of next month. The notification was to be issued on April 26.

Sources said most of the Akali and BJP ministers and MLAs of both the parties were upset over the way reservation roster of zones and villages was prepared to elect members of zila parishads and panchayat samities and sarpanches from scheduled castes and backward classes.

Certain ministers and MLAs had taken up this issue with the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who referred the matter to Rakhra.