Gandhinagar, 18 December 2011

Total 2124 Samras villages of Gujarat have elected their Sarpanch and local panchayat body unanimously. These villages will therefore not witness actual Gram Panchayat election on 29 December. Elections will be held as per the schedule for other 8270 village panchayat bodies where unopposed election could not happen.

As per the detail available from the election commission of Gujarat, as many as 280 villages of Rajkot are declared Samras. Detail of Samras villages in other districts:Ahmedabad 92, Anand 19, banaskantha 86, Bharuch 108, Bhavnagar 151, Dahod 33, Dang 2, Gandhinagar 33, Jamnagar 86, Junagadh 122, Kutch 159, Kheda 42, Mehsana 72, Navsari 67, Valsad 34, Vadodara 65, Surendranagar 173, Tapi 28, Surat 137, Sabarkantha 55, Rajkot 280, Porbandar 29, Patan 51, Panchmahal 48, Kutch has 159, and Narmada district 8.

Though Gujarat government announced rise in incentives to Samras villages last month, the number of Samras villages has gone down from 28% in 2006 to around 20% this time.

Gujarat Congress President Shri Arjun Modhwadia told media persons yesterday in Ahmedabad that the state government didn’t deliver promised incentives and extra monitory aid to Samras villages in 2006. “Thanks to state government’s such attitude of false promise and no delivery, many village panchayats were not interested in Samras scheme this time.