Guwahati: What should be the eligibility to contest elections and become a panchayat member? He or she cannot have more than two children, must have at least passed Class VI and have a toilet at home.

Assam Assembly on Wednesday passed the Assam Panchayat (Amendment) Bill, 2018, with this set of new eligibility criteria, which was termed as "historic" by Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami.

The bill, which was passed amid several suggestions from the Opposition AIUDF and a walk out by the Congress, stipulates that a candidate willing to contest the panchayat elections must have passed Class VI, cannot give birth to more than two children from single or multiple partners and should have a functional sanitary toilet at home.

This comes just months after the state Assembly approved a new population policy barring a person having more than two children from applying for government jobs.

The BJP-led state government, however, told the Assembly that the new criteria would not be applicable in the ensuing panchayat elections, likely to be held in April-May, and would have no retrospective impact.

"Those who already have more than two children can contest but it will be applicable for those who give birth to more than two children after notification of the new amendment is issued," health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma clarified in the House, as panchayat and rural development minister Naba Kumar Doley looked uneasy following questions by both the ruling and Opposition legislators.

Many MLAs, including the BJP's ally, the Asom Gana Parishad, asked why the government was making Class VI as the minimum educational qualification for a person willing to be a panchayat member although there was no such criteria for MLAs and MPs.

"People have elected us to the Assembly and now we are making laws about educational qualification for a panchayat member although there is no such criteria for us," former panchayat and rural development minister Rakibul Hussain said.

Sarma said, "We can have a meeting soon to decide the educational qualification for MLAs and MPs and move a proposal to the Centre for the same. But we have to start somewhere."

The bill says the educational qualification, however, would not be a bar for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBC and MOBC. Classes X and XII have been set as the minimum educational qualification for contesting elections for the post of panchayat president, anchalik panchayat member and for zila parishad members.

Congress MLAs walked out of the House as a BJP legislator intervened while MLA Sherman Ali was repeating the same queries regarding the two-child norm.