With passage of the ‘Uttarakhand Panchayati Raj (amendment) bill 2019 in the state assembly on Wednesday, the state government has ensured that those having more than two children would be debarred from contesting the ensuing election for the three tier Panchayati Raj institutions. The officiating Parliamentary Affairs minister, Madan Kaushik said that educational qualification clause has also been added in the bill.

He informed that the minimum educational qualification for contesting elections in the Panchayati Raj bodies for general category ( Male) has been kept class X while for the general category females and candidates belonging to SC and ST  categories ( males) the minimum educational qualification is class VIII. The bill mandates that the female candidates belonging to SC and ST categories the minimum educational qualification is class V.

The minister added that the earlier provision of granting a grace period of 300 days  from the day of notification of act for third child has been removed after consultation with legal experts.  It means that the provision of the act would be enforced from the date of notification of the act. After passage from the assembly the bill would now go the governor for consent. The minister made it clear that ensuing elections of Panchayati Raj bodies would be held on the basis of the new act. He said that the two children clause has been added to promote the concept of small family. Kaushik added that the purpose of setting up minimum educational qualification norm is to ensure that the people representatives are more educated and aware.