65% village Panchayats in 12 districts still not constituted, SEC to hold by-elections

PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun

 The large number of vacant posts of member village Panchayat in the recently held elections of Panchayati Raj bodies in the 12 districts of the State has resulted in a situation where about 65 per cent of the village Panchayats have not been constituted.

The data of the State Election Commission shows that 33,468 posts of the member village Panchayat -which happens to be the basic unit of the three-tier Panchayati Raj system- are still vacant. Due to these vacant posts, a total of the 4,772 duly elected Pradhans of the village Panchayats are sitting idle as they have not taken oath of office and secrecy. As per the law, these Pradhans will be able to take oath only when the vacant posts of the member of village Panchayats are filled.

 As per the provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act 2016, the SEC should hold by elections as early as possible to fill the vacant posts in the three-tier Panchayat bodies in the State. However the maximum time period in which the by-elections should be held is six months. It is learnt that the SEC had earlier planned to complete the process of by-elections till September 20 but due to the rain-triggered natural disasters in different parts of the State, these elections are now expected to be held in the month of October.

The SEC secretary Rahul Kumar Goyal told that deliberations are going on with the State administration for holding the by-elections on the vacant posts of the three-tier Panchayat bodies in all the districts of the State barring Haridwar. He said that the schedule of the by-elections will soon be declared.

 Apart from 33,468 vacant posts of member district Panchayats, the by-elections will also be held to fill 20 vacant posts of village Panchayat Pradhans and two posts of members of block Panchayats. 

The voting for three-tier Panchayat bodies in the 12 districts of the State was held in two phases on July 24 and 28. The elections were held to elect 55,587 village Panchayat members, 7,499 village Pradhans, 2,974 members of block Panchayat and 358 members of the district Panchayat. The counting of the votes was done on July 31 and the results were declared on the same day.