Several prominent people decry Raj Ordinance on local polls

Several prominent people including former Chief Election Commissioners James Lyngdoh and S Y Quraishi today sought immediate withdrawal of a recent ordinance issued by Rajasthan government, which fixes minimum educational qualifications for those contesting panchayat samiti and District Council elections.
In an open letter to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, they termed as "retrograde, undemocratic and unconstitutional" the ordinance, which according to them, will debar more than 90 per cent of rural Rajasthani women from contesting elections.
The signatories which include Justice Rajinder Sachar, Justice K Chandru, Kuldip Nayar, Aruna Roy, EAS Sarma, Satyanand Mishra, Nandita Das, Nikhil Dey, Jagdeep Chhokar, Kavita Srivastava, etc have written that they are "deeply distressed" by the ordinance just days ahead of the elections.

The ordinance which stipulates minimum educational qualification of secondary education (class 10) for candidates contesting Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti polls and class eight pass to be eligible to contest Sarpanch elections will exclude more than 80 per cent of rural Rajasthan's population from contesting.
"Literacy rates for rural SCs are even lower - with less than 50 per cent rural SCs literate and 31 percent rural SC women and 25 per cent rural ST women literate as per 2001 Census.
"While we would support, and welcome any effort to improve these figures, we do not believe debarring those who have been marginalised from school education will help correct this situation," the letter said.

Rajasthan is the only state that has stipulated minimum educational qualifications for candidates who want to contest Panchayat polls, they said.