Now, educational conditions for candidates of civic body polls too

House passes 2 Bills, introducing norms similar to those in PRI polls

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana assembly on Wednesday passed the Haryana Municipal (amendment) Bill, 2016 and Haryana Municipal Corporation (amendment) Bill, 2016, making educational and other conditions mandatory for the candidates of urban local body polls.

According to the amendment, a candidate should have passed Class-10 or its equivalent examination from any recognised institution or board. In case of a woman candidate or a male candidate belonging to a scheduled caste, the minimum educational qualification would be Class-8 pass. In case of a woman candidate belonging to scheduled caste, the minimum educational qualification would be Class-5.

Similar conditions were made mandatory for the candidates of the panchayati raj institution (PRI) polls by the state government early this year.

According to the amendment, conviction of charges framed against any person by a court in a criminal case for an offence, punishable with imprisonment for not less than 10 years, will bar him from contesting the elections.

Likewise, default of payment of electricity bill or of loans of cooperative institutions or nonprovision of functional toilet at the place of residence of a candidate has been made as disqualification. The Bills were moved by urban local bodies minister Kavita Jain. PAYMENT OF WAGES BILL

The assembly also passed the Payment of Wages (Haryana amendment) Bill, 2016. The proviso added to the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, states that the state government could specify the industrial establishment, the employers of which would pay to the persons employed therein, the wages either by cheque or by crediting the wages in their bank account.

The existing limit of such wage is ` 8,000 per month. It was felt that this wage limit needs to be removed in the present scenario as the manufacturing industry in Haryana has been very progressive and the wage

levels are usually high. INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES BILL

The House passed the Industrial Disputes (Haryana amendment) Bill, 2016 to facilitate the industry to increase the limit of 100 workmen to 300 workmen. However, the limit of 300 workmen is subject to a rider to the effect that if the state government is satisfied that maintenance of industrial peace or prevention of victimisation of workmen, so requires, it might apply the provisions to such industrial establishments employing less than 300 workmen but not less than 100. CONTRACT LABOUR BILL

The assembly also passed the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Haryana Amendment Bill, 2016 as per the application of this Central Act to the state of Haryana.

It was observed that the contractors commonly misuse the provisions of the Act and amendment aimed at curbing the exploitation at the hands of the contractors and empowering the government to impose further such conditions as may be felt necessary at the time of issuing registration certificate. FACTORIES BILL

The House also passed the Factories (Haryana amendment) Bill, 2016 as its application to the Haryana. The amendment was made to release the burden of small scale industries and exempt the factories from the preview if the Factories Act, 1948.

These four Bills were moved by labour and employment minister Capt Abhimanyu.