The Rural litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RlEK) has criticised the State Government for appointing administrators in Panchayats after end of the tenure of the Panchayats.
RlEK chairman Avadhash Kausal said that the present Chief Minister of Uttarakhand has been a judge of the High Court, but it appears as if he is either under much pressure from the corrupt State bureaucracy or he has stopped following the Constitution of India deliberately. “The 73rd amendment clearly states that panchayat elections must take place before the five year term of the panchayat ends. This provision was kept only to avoid having the administrators by the State Governments,” he said.
According to Kaushal, RlEK went to court against the Government of UP, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Orissa and Tamil nadu for not holding election on time and flouting the provisions of the act, following which the order passed by Justice AN Ray and Justice GB Patnaik of Supreme Court of India said.
The concerned State cannot be permitted to withhold election of panchayats except in cases of genuine supervening difficulties to hold such election, eg unforeseen natural calamities in the state like floods, earthquake etc. In this order also SC has not allowed to have administrators but allowed to extend the term of five years of the elected panchayat raj functionaries for more than five years.
It has become a norm that the State Government does not get the panchayat election done on time and appoints administrators. The budget is also usurped, this is highly unconstitutional practice and against the national interest.
“RlEK agrees that if there is any case of fraud or embezzlement against the elected panchayat raj functionary, only against those posts administrators can be appointed, that too preferably vice president zila parishad, deputy block pramukh or up-upradhan”
said Kaushal.