Caste certificate compulsory for nominations

BHUBANESWAR: In a significant move, the State Election Commission (SEC) has made caste certificate compulsory for filing of nomination forms for the ensuing panchayat polls. All candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and backward classes will have to submit caste certificates for contesting in the three-tier polls scheduled in February. The certificate will be mandatory for all the posts - ward member, sarpanch, samiti member and zilla parishad member. Earlier, caste certificate was not compulsory for the candidates. If they did not get the necessary document from a competent authority, they could submit an undertaking as prescribed by the Commission. This, however, led to malpractices. There were instances in which candidates, who did not belong to the reserved categories, contested for posts just by submitting an undertaking and enjoyed the position after their win in election. The only option to nail the erring candidates was through filing of election petitions against them after the polls were over. However, the whole process drew too long as the cases took years to be disposed of and the elected candidates mostly managed to cling on to the posts for about four to five years. They not only held on to posts illegally but also denied  legitimate candidates their due. The Commission, which issued an order in this regard, said making submission of caste certificates compulsory along with the nomination papers would solve the problem. Non-submission of the certificates would lead to rejection of the candidature. Further, the Commission ordered that caste certificates issued by competent authorities from Odisha will be acceptable while those from outside the State will not be accepted.