Panchayat poll process kicks off, aspirants line up to collect forms

The electioneering process for the election of 1,178 panches and 176 sarpanches of villages falling under Malerkotla, Amargarh and Ahmedgarh kicked off with installation assistant returning officers on Friday morning.

Though no nomination paper was submitted by afternoon on the first day of the schedule, a number of aspirants along with their supporters visited the offices at designated places to collect forms required for filing the nominations.

Ahmedgarh and Malerkotla (additional) SDM Harbans Singh and Amargarh SDM Surinder Kaur said 21 teams of returning officers and assistant returning officers had been deputed at designated places at all three subdivisions of the district. They said several villagers collected information and pro forma to submit nomination papers for posts of sarpanches and panches. They added that polling for the posts was scheduled to take place on October 15.

Meanwhile, the government employees deployed on poll duty for the forthcoming panchayat elections have been cautioned against negligence or wilful default during the entire exercise. They have been told to ensure the elections were conducted in a transparent manner.

The direction came during a special meeting held at the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Thursday.

DC Pallavi said adequate arrangements have been made for the organisation of panchayat elections in 176 villages in all three subdivisions on October 15. “We intend to ensure all voters cast their votes without any coercion, allurement or discrimination,” said Pallavi.

The DC said 176 sarpanches and 1,178 panches would be elected by 1,98,503 eligible voters — 1,05,130 men and 93,373 women.

She said in 69 villages of Malerkotla block, 25 seats have been reserved for women sarpanches, whereas nine each have been reserved candidates who belong to the SC.

The DC said in Ahmedgarh block, comprising 60 villages, 10 seats have been reserved for women sarpanches and 10 each for candidates who belong to the SC and in Amargarh block (47 villages), 16 seats were reserved for women and seven each for candidates who belong to the SC.

The authorities said nominations would be accepted from 11 am to 3 pm on working days according to the schedule publicised at block-level offices. They said the upper limit for expenses for a sarpanch’s election has been fixed at Rs 40,000 and Rs 30,000 for the post of a panch.