348 newly elected gram pradhans sworn in, 274 others to take oath today
PRAYAGRAJ : In a first, 348 newly elected gram pradhans in 23 development blocks of the district took the oath of office in virtual ceremonies on Tuesday. The remaining 274 gram pradhans will take the oaths on Wednesday.
The virtual oath-taking ceremonies conducted with the help of Google and Zoom links were held at primary schools and Panchayat Bhawans, intimation regarding which were provided to the gram pradhans concerned in advance by the Panchayati Raj department officials, informed district Panchayati raj officer (DPRO) Renu Srivastava.
She said that returning officers were stationed at each site of the swearing-in ceremony to ensure the physical presence of the newly elected gram pradhans while block development officers had been entrusted the task of taking signatures of each of the individual being administered the oath on the document as required under the norms. The rest of all the proceedings were held in virtual mode.
The district has a total of 1540 Gram Sabhas but many of these have posts of gram panchayat members lying vacant and for the swearing-in, the set quorum must be complete.
As a result, swearing-in of just 629 is scheduled to be held on the two days while the remaining 911 gram pradhans would be sworn in only when this quorum gets completed, officials shared.
The DPRO said that the district has a total of 19,820 posts of gram panchayat members who are sworn in along with the gram pradhans and so around 7,500 of them would also be sworn in later when their respective gram pradhans are administered the oaths.
Earlier, district magistrate Bhanu Chandra Goswami had issued the notification for the swearing-in ceremonies of newly elected gram pradhans and panchayat members to be held in virtual mode late on Monday night entrusting the responsibilities of conducting the ceremonies on respective officials of the various development blocks. They were sent the Google and Zoom links on Tuesday morning through which they then administered the oaths.
Polling under the first phase of the three-tier panchayat elections had taken place in Prayagraj on April 15.
Voting in all 1540 gram sabhas of 23 development blocks of the district was held at 5269 polling booths. The counting began on May 2 at centres set up in each development block and results of the elections were declared on May 2 and May 3.