Punjab Panchayat Election Schedule: In a major development, Punjab Panchayat Election schedule was announced on Wednesday. Announcing the Punjab Panchayat Election Date 2024, Commissioner of the State Election Commission Raj Kamal Chaudhary stated that voting will be cast on October 15. Counting of votes will be done on the same date. He further said that nominations can be filed for the post of Panch and Sarpanch from September 27 to 4 October.
Chaudhary further said that the time limit for Gram Panchayat had ended in February 2024, but the elections were delayed due to the Lok Sabha elections. The notification for the Panchayat elections has been issued. He said that the Punjab government had talked about conducting these elections before October 20. Many holidays are coming next month. Keeping this in mind, the date has been announced. There is a holiday on October 1 and 2. After that, there is Dussehra on the 12th. Valmiki Jayanti is on October 1 and Karva Chauth is on 20th. Apart from this, examinations and paddy harvesting have also been taken care of.
More about the 2024 Punjab Panchayat Elections
The commissioner said that there are 5 to 13 panchs in a gram panchayat. There is one sarpanch. Different candidates will stand from the ward. The voter list is updated till 4 September. At present, there are 13937-gram panchayats, 19110 polling booths, and 1,33,97,932 voters.
He said that this time the elections will be held through the ballot box. A nomination fee of Rs 100 will have to be paid for panch and sarpanch. SC BC has a 50 percent exemption. The expenditure limit of sarpanch has been increased from 30 thousand to 40 thousand rupees and that of panch from 20 thousand to 30 thousand. Returning officers have been put on duty to take care of this.
Kamal Chaudhary further clarified that the elections will not be held on party symbols. Keeping this in mind, special symbols have been issued. Candidates of gram panchayats cannot stand on political party symbols. Separate symbols have been given for Sarpanch and Panchs. There are 32 free symbols for Zila Parishad, 32 separate symbols for Block Samiti.
There are a total of 13937 Panchayats in the state, while there are 153 Block Samitis and 23 Zila Parishads. Their term was completed on 31 December 2023. Hoshiarpur district has the highest number of 1405 Panchayats in the state, while Patiala has 1022 Panchayats.