Keypoints:
- The bill allows 50% reservation for women in gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads.
- Bill also proposed eight percent reservation to the ‘more disadvantaged’ among the backward classes.
With the aim to enhance women’s participation in the three tier panchayati raj system, the bill allows fifty percent reservation to them in gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and the zila parishads.
On Friday, the Haryana Assembly passed a bill which provides the right to recall members of the Panchayati Raj institutions to those who elected them and gives women fifty percent reservation in these rural bodies.
Also, the bill proposed eight percent reservation to the “more disadvantaged” among the backward classes.
The bill allows the recall of village sarpanches and members of the block level Panchayat samitis and the district level zila parishads, if they fail to perform.
In the concluding day of the Vidhan Sabha session, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala tables the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020 in the House.
With the enactment of the bill, even before their tenure is over, people in rural areas will get the right to remove a sarpanch or members of the two bodies.
According to a statement of objectives, the amendment is aimed at increasing their accountability to the electorate.
It said, “The intent of the provision is to enhance democratic accountability of the governing in Panchayati Raj Institutions towards the governed.”
“The right to recall is a historic decision,” says Chautala.
To recall a sarpanch and members of the two bodies, 50 percent members of the ward or gram sabha have to give in writing that they want to initiate proceedings, he said.
It will be followed by a sector ballot system in which their recall will require two third members of tha gram sabha or the ward voting against them.
The government has also given the nod to amend the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and the Factories Act, 1948 to provide for some relief to industries and factories amid the COVID 19 pandemic.
“To give 50 percent reservation to women in Panchayats, we will bring in a Bill in the next Vidhan Sabha session,” Chautala told a news conference here during which he also dwelt upon various steps of the state government for making Haryana a preferred industrial destination.
