Five days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government in Punjab withdrew its decision to dissolve over 13,000 gram panchayats due to “technical flaws” and suspended the services of two senior bureaucrats, it has retracted its notification for conducting Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections on Tuesday.
What adds a layer of intrigue to this development is the new notification, which stipulates that while elections for Panchayats will proceed as planned by December 31, the elections for Zila Parishads and Panchayat Samitis have been abruptly withdrawn.
Notably, the Government had previously issued a comprehensive notification on August 10, outlining elections for all three tiers of rural local bodies, setting the date for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections as November 25.
The notification for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections had faced legal challenges, with opponents contending that holding these elections 11 months ahead of their term expiration was premature and potentially unconstitutional.
The matter had reached the corridors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, where a hearing was scheduled for Wednesday to address the legal validity of the notification. However, the government’s swift withdrawal has now thrown the legal proceedings into uncertainty.
Sources within the State Government have hinted at “technical flaws” in the election notification, echoing similar issues that were exposed in the notification regarding the dissolution of Panchayats. The latest development has left the Government open to allegations of mismanagement and hasty decision-making in matters of vital public interest.
Reinstate Senior IAS Officers of Panchayat Dept: Bajwa
Seeking the reinstatement of two suspended senior bureaucrats of the Panchayat Department, the Leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday said that the AAP Government was running away from conducting an inquiry on the issue, which means that Panchayat Minister and Punjab Chief Minister were at fault.
“Dissolving Panchayats was certainly a politically-motivated decision. The Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, and the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann were closely monitoring the entire process of strangulation of the democratic institute. The possibility of some higher AAP leaders’ involvement in the entire sordid episode cannot be ruled out,” said Bajwa,
Senior Congress leader alleged that DK Tiwari, Principal Secretary (Water Supply and Sanitation) and Financial Commissioner (Rural Development and Panchayats); and Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Director (Rural Development and Panchayats) were made scapegoats and suspended in a haste to hush up the matter.
“AAP Government has already taken a U-turn and withdrawn its decision on the dissolution of Panchayats after the Punjab and Haryana High Court intervened. It will soon take another U-turn and reinstate both of the suspended senior bureaucrats. It is illegitimate to suspend any official without ordering an inquiry on the issue. The government must tell the people of Punjab what wrong these two officials did that they got suspended,” said Bajwa.
