Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, while giving basic mantra for rural development to Sarpanchs, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad members of Palwal and Faridabad districts, on Thursday said that they should do good work to live upto the expectations of all those who have entrusted their trust on them by electing them.
During the programme, he also made the representatives pledge to establish a ‘corruption-free, transparent and Antyodaya-based system’.
“The tradition of Panchayats dates back to the time of Rigveda, thus every elected representative of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) should discharge their responsibility with complete honesty,” said Khattar while interacting with Sarpanch, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad members during the ‘Mantrana’ programme held in Palwal. Union Minister of State for Power and Heavy Industries Krishan Pal and Haryana Transport and Higher Education Minister Mool Chand Sharma were present in the programme.
The Chief Minister extended best wishes to the people of the state on Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary, National Youth Day, Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Pongal.
He said that today the present government in Haryana has completed 3000 days of its tenure.
The Khap-Panchayats established since ancient times have also done commendable work from time to time. Panchayats also played a significant role in making the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao program a mass movement, he added.
The Chief Minister exhorted the PRI representatives to develop a corruption-free, transparent system. With the use of technology, radical changes have been brought to ensure the reach of benefits of every welfare scheme to the last mile citizen or ‘Antyodaya’. The life of the common man is getting better and easier with many programmes like Parivar Pehchan Patra, and CHIRAYU Haryana. Also, in the last eight years, more than one lakh government jobs have been given on merit, asserted Sh. Manohar Lal.
He said that the panchayat representatives should also perform their duties while upholding the spirit of Haryana Ek-Haryanvi Ek and Sabka Saath-Sabka Vikas-Sabka Vishwas and Prayas.
Khattar said that an amount of Rs 300 crore was released for unanimously elected representatives. He said that this time, out of 70,000 representatives, 40,000 were elected unanimously. This system has promoted social harmony and mutual brotherhood. The present government has done many things in the direction of making Panchayats autonomous. We have also started the system of literate Panchayats and this time 50 percent representation has been given to women in panchayat elections. Because of this step, this time, a large number of daughters have been elected in the panchayats.
1100 CRORE TRANSFERRED TO THE PRIS ACCOUNT
The Chief Minister informed that to make Panchayats autonomous, it has been decided that Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad will be able to prepare their own budget every year and use the funds themselves for the development of their area. The government will not interfere in this work.
To encourage this policy, the Haryana government also transferred Rs 1,100 crore to the accounts of Panchayati Raj Institutions, said the Chief Minister, adding that this time also the Panchayats which have done good work should be honoured. Along with this, those who do wrong things will be punished while moving forward on the policy of zero tolerance against corruption. An experiment has also been done to conduct the social audit for the development of the village and to designate a class-I officer as ‘Gram Sanrakshak’. Gram Sabha will decide the audit team. Along with this, the Sanrakshak Officer organizes the Gram Sabha and informs the common people about welfare schemes.