Gandhinagar, DeshGujarat

Gujarat Assembly today passed Gujarat Sthanik Sattamandal Kayda(Sudhara) Vidheyak 2015.

With implementation of this bill, tenure of chairman and deputy chairman of various committees including standing committee and transport committee of municipal corporation and municipalities will be 2.5 years. Tenure of committee members will also be 2.5 years. The amendment in this regard will be implemented only after general elections of municipalities and municipal corporations.

Tenure of taluka and district panchayat president/vice president will be 2.5 years instead of existing rule of 5 years. Tenure of members will also be 5 years. One month before the end of tenure of president and vice president, election for the posts will need to be held. Outgoing president/vice president will be able to contest that election. On termination of membership, the post of president/vice president occupied by same member will be declared vacant automatically.

With new amendment in effect, Sarpanchs shall be empowered to spend Rs. 500 instead of existing limit of Rs. 50 in urgent cases. Gram Panchayats at present need to take permission of district panchayat to spend more than Rs. 100 to hold celebration of national festival or to call conventions. With new amendment effective, this limit will be lifted to Rs. 5,000. Similarly in case of taluka panchayats, this limit has been raised from existing Rs. 200 to Rs. 15,000.

If 1/3rd members of gram panchayat want to call meeting, but Sarpanch doesn’t call it in one month period, then in such case Taluka Development Officer(TDO) can call such meeting as per the amendment made in bill. The existing law doesn’t describe which two members can be called to gram panchayat meeting as special invitees. The amendment suggests that Sarpanch can’t call his son,daughter,mother,father,mother in law, father in law,spouse,brother in law and sister in law as special invitee in gram panchayat meetings.

As per recommendation of Finance Commission, the amendment has made provision for compulsory collection of property tax, water tax and cleanliness tax. Presently there’ no provision of mandatory tax.

Presently, by-polls need to be held if some seats are vacant even four months before the general election. The amendment has extended this limit to one year in gram, taluka and district panchayats. This means in the last year of five years tenure, there will be no by-poll.

-DeshGujarat