Chandigarh, Angered by the Haryana cabinet’s decision to amend the Panchayati Raj rules, 19 sarpanches of Alewa block in Jind district – which falls under Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s Uchana assembly constituency – have submitted their official records, tickets and register proceedings to Block Development Returned to officer. ThePrint learned on Thursday.
According to the sarpanches, the move would undermine their authority and that of the entire Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
To discuss their concerns, the Haryana Sarpanch Association called a meeting on Sunday at Samalkha, Panipat, where they aim to take a collective decision to oppose the government’s move.
A Press release In a notification issued by the Haryana Information and Public Relations Department after the Haryana cabinet meeting on July 4, it has been said that the amendment in Haryana Panchayati Raj Rules 1995 was approved in the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Chandigarh.
The new rules, called the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Rules 2023, require panchayats to use any grant-in-aid given by the state government to a gram panchayat, panchayat samiti or zilla parishad only for that specific purpose for which he has been charged.
The amendments further specify that the state government has the power to direct these panchayat bodies to carry out specific functions and duties, or to implement development works using their respective funds.
“This direction can be issued only if the development work is requested by a resident of the concerned Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti or Zilla Parishad and the state government considers it to be in public interest,” the release said.
Talking to media persons after the cabinet meeting, Khattar said, Said That sometimes villagers come to him or the government with complaints that the panchayat is not doing development work in their street.
Many important proposals were approved in the meeting of the museum today. pic.twitter.com/C5CS74xHaE
-Manohar Lal (@MLKhattar) 4 July 2023
Even after the instructions of the government, sometimes the Panchayats used to follow and sometimes they ignored the instructions. CM said.
Similarly, our MLAs come to me with complaints that you have given all the powers to the Panchayats and they are unable to get even small development works done., Now, with this amendment, even if an MLA wants to get some work done, or an MP has an issue, we will issue directions to the panchayats from here, and they will be bound to do that development work,” Khattar said. Said.
Meanwhile, 19 villages – Nagura, Badhana, Naguran Nirman, Dehola, Sandil, Thua, Mando Khedi, Pegan, Shamdo, Chuharpur, Katwal, Durana, Aleva, Dhigana, Hasanpur, Dhillowal, Raichandwala, Khanda and The sarpanches registered their protest. Gohian – has returned its office contents to Aleva block block development officer, Badhana village sarpanch and Aleva block sarpanch association president Ram Mehar Singh, he told ThePrint.
“Ever since we became sarpanchs after the PRI elections in October and November 2022, the state government is taking away our powers,” Singh said. “First, they did e-tendering for most of the development works and gave more control over them to the officials, and now, they are amending the rules which empower the government to direct PRIs to do a particular work.”
He said that he too was the sarpanch of his village in 2010, but since then the powers of the sarpanch have been curtailed.
“Now, we’re just watchmen (Village watchman),” he said.
For Ranbir Saman, president of the Haryana Sarpanch Association, the cabinet-approved amendment is completely against the spirit of the Panchayati Raj Act – which aims to transfer powers to the grassroots level in the hands of panchayats.
Speaking about the meeting to be held on Sunday, Saman told ThePrint, “We will take a tough decision on our future course of action in consultation with all the members. This government is against the spirit of Panchayati Raj, which was the dream of Mahatma Gandhi. Earlier, they diluted our powers through e-tendering and now, they want to make sarpanches mere rubber stamps,” he said.
Opposition to e-tendering
state government Revised Rule 134 To introduce e-tendering for allotment of works worth more than Rs 5 lakh under the Panchayati Raj Act in February 2021. Later, the limit for award of work without e-tender was reduced to Rs 2 lakh.
According to the government, this step was necessary to eliminate corruption in panchayats, however, sarpanches alleged that the purpose of introducing e-tendering was to take away the power of all works above Rs 2 lakh from sarpanches. authority to officers.
But, then this move did not become a problem as the term of the panchayats ended on February 21 and the next election was postponed due to Covid-19, which could be held only in October and November 2022.
Sarpanchs across the state, under the banner of Haryana Sarpanch Association under the leadership of Saman, have been agitating against the e-tendering process ever since he assumed office in December last year.
(Editing by Richa Mishra)