Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan once again failed to bring his two cabinet colleagues on a consensus over bringing Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Tribal Blocks under the Panchayat and Rural Development department.
Panchayat and Rural Development minister Gopal Bhargav and Tribal Welfare and Scheduled Castes Welfare Minister Gyan Singh did not arrived on consensus over the issue of CEO during the cabinet meeting on Monday.
Chief Minister Chouhan advised both the ministers to resolve the issue mutually and then come to me. The issue is pertained to bringing of CEOs of tribal blocks under the Panchayat and Rural Development department.
Sources informed that the Panchayat minister wants to keep CEOs of Janpad Panchayats under his department and is demanding for the same since long. The issue came before the cabinet during the last cabinet meeting also but both the ministers could not arrive at consensus.
This time also the issue was discussed in informal meeting but the departmental minister Gyan Singh again opposed it.This time the Chief Minister suggested both the ministers to sit together and resolve the issue on their own and then bring it in the cabinet.
Notably, the demand is about two decades old as the issue of posting rural development department’s CEO in Tribal Block’s Janpad Panchayats is stuck since 1995. Rural Development minister has raised the issue several times but the issue could not get settled.
Tribal welfare department has posted teachers, engineers and others as in-charge instead of CEO while the Panchayat department is of the view that these people are neither understand the programs of rural development nor are they capable at administrative levels. Due to this on the one hand the villagers are not able to get the benefits of the schemes and on the other hand complaints of scandals and scams are on the rise.