A record 333 unmarried women have been elected to the post of sarpanch and panch in the panchayat polls last month. Haryana Development and Panchayats Minister O P Dhankar said that the amendments to the Panchayati Raj Act have led to this societal change”

“The daughters of the house were generally not given the opportunity to contest in the panchayat elections. With the changes in the criteria this has been possible,” said Dhankar.

In these elections, women have won more seats than the 33 per cent reserved for them.

The swearing-in of the newly elected members of panchayati raj institutions would be held on February 12, 15, 16 and 17. All panchayats would formally begin functioning from February 21. The oath-taking for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti members would be held on February 12 at Nilokheri in district Karnal. The swearing-in of sarpanches would be held on February 15 at Rohtak. On the subsequent days, swearing-in of panches would be held.

A training programme for trainers would be started in the coming days. Initially, 80 resource persons would be trained who would further train sarpanches and panches. The government is also planning to start a three-month long certificate course for providing training to sarpanches and panches.

The course would be available from different universities. Aspirants for posts of sarpanches and panches who want to understand the functioning of panchayats could also pursue the course. The Haryana government is updating the websites of all villages. The amount of funds that were allocated to the village and what has been spent on different works would be listed on the websites.

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