The Haryana Assembly on November 6, 2020 passed the ‘Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020’ which provides the right to recall members of Panchayati Raj institutions to those who elected them.
- The Bill allows the recall of village sarpanches and members of the block-level panchayat samitis and district-level zila parishads if they fail to perform.
- With the enactment of the Bill, people in rural areas will get the right to remove a sarpanch or members of the two bodies even before their tenure is over.
- The bill also gives women 50% reservation in these rural bodies.
- The Bill also allows reservation to the Backward Classes Category (A), the “more disadvantaged” among the group.
About Right To Recall
- Section 47 of the Chhattisgarh Nagar Palika Act, 1961, provides for holding of elections to recall elected officials due to non-performance.
- In 2001, Madhya Pradesh amended its Panchayati Raj Act; voters now could recall non-performing elected representatives after two and a half years in office. In 2002, voters of Anuppur municipality in Sahdol district successfully exercised the right to recall and subsequently Palavika Patel was recalled.
- The Rajasthan Municipal Act 2009 gave the voter with the ‘Right to recall’. In 2012, for the first time in Rajasthan, an election for recalling an elected chairman of a municipal body was held in Mangrol Municipality area of Baran district.
- Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had sought the introduction of a system of a “Right to Recall” of a legislator to ensure accountability.
.
