Calcutta, April 8: All panchayat poll candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents if any, bank details and income while filing nominations.

“This is the first time that such a declaration is being made mandatory in the rural polls to help voters know their candidates better,” state election commissioner Ashok Gupta said.

Village panchayat chiefs will be barred from holding any other office after June 25. The government issued a notification today making them “whole-time functionaries”.

The allowances for zilla parishad, panchayat samiti and village panchayat chiefs have been increased. A parishad sabhadhipati will get Rs 5,100 instead of Rs 3,600 and a samiti chief Rs 1,200 more than the earlier Rs 2,800. A village panchayat pradhan will get Rs 3,000 instead of Rs 1,150.

The elections will be held on May 11, 14 and 18 in all districts except Darjeeling, which will not vote.

The model code of conduct will come into effect tomorrow once the nomination process starts. “A minister will violate it even by attending a government-sponsored programme to mark Tagore’s birth anniversary on May 9,” Gupta said.

In 2003, only those contesting the 748 zilla parishad seats had to submit declarations about themselves. “This time, those contesting the 41,513 village panchayat and 8,798 panchayat samiti seats will also have to submit declarations,” Gupta said.

Many panchayat functionaries, an official said, have assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. With crores coming to the rural bodies for development projects, the declarations have become imperative, he added.