Hari Om (44), a farmer from Telan village in Palwal district, is in race against time as he struggles to get a duplicate matriculation certificate issued from the Haryana Board of School Education to contest the panchayat elections.
The Haryana Government had last month issued an ordinance making matriculation mandatory for those contesting the panchayat polls. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, however, stayed the orders, prompting the government to get an amended Bill cleared in the Assembly.
“I misplaced my certificate after clearing the examination in 1987. I never needed it all these years. But with the imposition of the new qualification norms, I have to get a duplicate certificate to contest the panchayat elections,” he said.
Hari Om is not the lone case. The board’s headquarters here has received around 1,000 such requests from aspirants over the past one week seeking duplicate certificates.
Jaipal Singh (65), who belongs to a Kurukshetra village, said he completed his matriculation in 1966 but lost the certificate. “The new qualification norm has forced me to visit the board’s office. The filing of nomination papers for sarpanch begins from Tuesday (September 15),” he says.
Yogender Singh (60), a farmer from Shahpur Khurd village in Faridabad district, said: “As soon as the poll dates for the Panchayati Raj Institutions were announced, I came here to get a duplicate copy of my class X marks-sheet. I completed the formalities but the board officials failed to dispatch the certificate. I am revisiting the office today with the hope of getting a copy.”
Bijender Singh from Jhajjar said he contested the sarpanch polls in the past but never required a matriculation certificate. The new norms have forced him to leave the poll preparations mid way to procure a duplicate certificate.
Chanderpal Singh (60) from Sorkhi village in Hisar district said he tried to get the application form for a duplicate certificate attested at the village government school, but the headmaster turned him away saying he did not have the old records.
The board is finding it hard to cope with the flood of requests from aspirants.
An official said most of the applicants cleared their examination decades ago, some as early as 1970.
“The aspirants need to get their application form bearing a photograph signed from the headmaster of the school they had studied. A fee of Rs 600 has to be submitted by hand for reissuance of a duplicate certificate,” the official said.
Board spokesperson Meenakshi Sharda said extra staff had been deputed to process such applications and officials had been asked to stay back after office hours to complete the task.
