CHANDIGARH
Congress common secretary and former Union Minister Kumari Selja on Thursday hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Jannayak Janta Party, accusing them of working in the direction of weakening the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the State.
She mentioned Sarpanches (village heads) from throughout the State staged a peaceable demonstration towards the federal government’s e-tendering course of in Panchkula on March 1, however the police used power, injuring lots of them. “The government wants to suppress the voice of people in an oppressive manner, which is condemnable,” she mentioned, including that the mechanism to allocate improvement work of over ₹2 lakh by way of e-tendering was unsuitable.
Ms. Selja mentioned that the federal government’s determination of implementing e-tendering would adversely have an effect on the event works in the villages. “The Sarpanches are continuously opposing this decision, but the government is not willing to address the issue,” she mentioned at a press convention right here.
Sarpanches of a number of villages on Wednesday staged a protest in Panchkula towards the Haryana authorities’s e-tendering policy for improvement work in rural areas.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal, in the course of the lately concluded session of the State Assembly, had asserted that the e-tendering system in PRIs would proceed as a part of the federal government’s zero-tolerance policy adopted towards corruption.
Ms. Selja mentioned that the Congress supported the Old Pension Scheme for authorities workers. “The OPS has been restored by the Congress in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh and it will be restored in Haryana once the Congress forms the next government, she added.
Meeting Governor
Meanwhile, Haryana Congress has sought time to meet the Governor on March 6 to submit a memorandum against the e-tendering and rising inflation. Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the BJP-JJP government is continuously working to suppress the voice of the people and weaken democratic institutions.
“By implementing the system of e-tendering, the government wants to keep villages deprived of development. The government wants to establish a new den of corruption by handing over Panchayati Raj to contractors and officials through e-tendering process. This is why Sarpanches are opposing this decision because they are the elected representative and they have direct accountability towards the public,” he mentioned.
