Making arrangements for panchayat elections: Punjab State Election Commission

Chandigarh, Aug 13 (PTI) The Punjab State Election Commission on Tuesday said it is in the process of making suitable logistical arrangements for conducting the general elections to the gram panchayats in the state.

Punjab State Election Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhuri said the electoral rolls for use in the panchayat elections is concerned, the final publication of voters lists with qualifying date of January 1, 2023 has been done by all the deputy commissioners on January 7, 2024.

In a statement, Chaudhari also said the said voter list was duly updated up to December 29, 2023 after receiving claims and objections from the general public.

He informed that to maintain the sanctity of the electoral rolls so as to ensure that all eligible voters, who could not have their names entered in the electoral rolls or who have subsequently become eligible to have their name included be given an opportunity to do so.

In this regard, the State Election Commission has issued directions to all the deputy commissioners-cum-district election officers to further direct all the electoral registration officers to take steps to update the electoral roll to be used in the panchayat elections by accepting applications.

For this purpose, a special campaign will be held on August 20, 21 and 22, he said.

Notably, in February this year, the rural development and panchayat dissolved the gram panchayats, which have completed a five-year term.

In August last year, the state government had dissolved all 13,241 gram panchayats through a notification.

However, the AAP government had to withdraw its notification of dissolution of gram panchayats after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) challenged the August 10 notification in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The government had then even suspended its two senior IAS officers for taking a "technically flawed" decision on dissolution of the panchayats. PTI CHS AS AS