After holding direct elections of the Mayor in five municipal corporations last year, the Haryana Government has now proposed to conduct direct elections of chairmen of municipal councils and municipal committees to further empower the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the state.
Apart from this, the State Government has given in principle approval to convene a three-day session of members of zila parishad and municipal corporations after every three months on the lines of session of Haryana Vidhan Sabha.
The matter related to empowering the Panchayati Raj Institutions in Haryana was discussed during the routine informal cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Tuesday night.
Giving information about the meeting, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Krishan Kumar Bedi said that the result of recent Lok Sabha was discussed and it was decided to focus on blocks where the BJP did not do well in the polls.
For this, the Chief Minister, Ministers, MLAs, MPs will work to strengthen the party at such blocks, Bedi said.
In order to express gratitude to the people for the huge mandate given to the party in the Lok Sabha elections, the Chief Minister will also start ‘Jan Aashirvad Rally’ from Kalka on August 18 which will continue till September 8, he said.
The Chief Minister will also launch the ‘Rahagiri Program’ in every district from July 14 , it will be of one-hour duration in morning. The Chief Minister will connect with the ‘Rahagiri Program’ through video conferencing. NGOs and eminent people of the society, who are performing well and participating in these programmes, will be honored, the Minister said.
When asked about the post-matric scholarship scam in the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Bedi said that some cases are of 2012-13. The Chief Minister himself has taken cognizance on this matter and Haryana State Vigilance Bureau has been handed over its investigation.
The facts will be clear after the investigation report is received. However, such cases are dealt at directorate level only, he added.