Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 20: Movement for Peace, Equality and Justice expressed resentment over the amendments made in the Panchayati Raj Act, allowing Panchs to nominate Sarpanchs.
In a joint statement, Kuldeep Kumar Rao, Ram Singh Chauhan and Gurtaj Singh, members of Movement for Peace, Equality & Justice said that by doing this amendment, the Government has snatched the rights of the electorates of Panchayat to elect Sarpanchs by exercising their right of franchise in a democratic manner by ballot.
“The coalition Government has opened another door of corruption in a basic democratic institution like Panchyat where under it has been made easy to negotiate with few Panchs instead of thousands of electorates of whole Panchyat”, they said, adding that in this way, the elected Sarpanch will be a puppet in the hands of few Panchs and will not be liable or answerable to the general public of the Panchyat.
BJP in the State Government partnership claiming to be the champion of people’s right through democratic process, is simply becoming a tool in the hands of PDP, they said, adding that it simply gives an impression to the general public that there is no deference between the previous NC, Congress-PDP & the present Government where BJP is a partner with whom public had attached high hopes of safe guarding people’s rights through constitutionally framed democratic institutions like Panchyati Raj under the present system in vogue.
“Like all States of the country, Block Development Councils and District Development Boards must be constituted in the State as per provisions of the Act and the Chairman of the Block Development Council and Sarpanch of each Panchyat must be direct public representatives through direct voting of the electorates so that people’s faith in the democratic institutions remain intact”, they demanded.
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