Punjab CM dissolved 13,000 panchayats eyeing to usurp Rs 1,000 crore: Sukhbir Badal

Chandigarh, Sep 1 (IANS) Eyeing to usurp Rs 1,000 crore of Panchayati Raj funds, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Panchayati Raj Minister Laljit Bhullar were responsible for dissolving panchayats six months before the term, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal said on Friday.

He said action should be taken against them "instead of hapless IAS officers who were brow beaten into signing the relevant file".

"Both the Chief Minister and the Panchayati Raj Minister should resign immediately," he demanded.

Addressing the media, the SAD President said that "the file on this issue was moved by hand with the Director, Panchayati Raj, and the Financial Commissioner, Development, being asked to sign the order dissolving the Panchayats on August 3 and 4".

He said following this the Panchayati Raj Minister as well as the Chief Minister signed the file at lightning speed on August 7.

"It is clear that all this was preplanned with the aim of usurping Rs 1,000 crore worth Panchayati Raj funds. The government has admitted as such in the high court where it has stated that the panchayats were being dissolved to save misappropriation of huge funds with the panchayats."

Badal said this amounted to calling the people’s representatives corrupt when actually the opposite was true.

"Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers like Lalchand Kataruchak and Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal are accused of blatant acts of corruption but no action is being taken against them. But poor panchayat members are being targeted for no fault of theirs."

The SAD chief said that the ESMA should be invoked against the Chief Minister for abandoning the state when it was ravaged by floods. "The Chief Minister chose to ferry his boss Arvind Kejriwal to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh instead of attending to Punjabis during a moment of crisis."

Badal said even on Thursday instead of attending the Rakhar Puniya mela at Baba Bakala, the Chief Minister had chosen to ferry Kejriwal to Mumbai in the Punjab government aircraft.

"It is clear the Chief Minister is not fulfilling his duties towards the state," he alleged.

Badal also asked the government to listen to the grievances of patwaris’and resolve their grievances instead of enforcing draconian acts on them.

A day after the government informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it will withdraw its notification regarding the dissolution of over 13,000 gram panchayats, the AAP government on Friday suspended its two senior IAS officers for taking a “technically-flawed” decision.

The suspended officers are D. K. Tiwari, Financial Commissioner, Rural Development, and Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Director, Rural Development. The action against them has created furore in bureaucratic and political circles.

A copy of the file was in circulation in the morning that showed it having signs of Chief Minister Mann and minister Bhullar and both IAS officers.