The ruling Congress party is still not serious about conducting the Panchayat polls in Uttarakhand and the party is sure to face the wrath of the rural people in the ensuing Panchayat elections as it deliberately delayed the polls for a year. The State in charge of Panchayati Raj cell of BJP, Digambar Singh Negi levelled this allegation while addressing the media persons here on Tuesday.
Putting a question mark on the intention of the state government for conducting a fair election Negi alleged that in gross violation of election commission's directive many officers associated with these elections like Block Development officers District Panchayati Raj Officers and Additional Chief District Panchayat officers are posted for more than three years in similar capacity.
He demanded that the election commission should deploy block level independent observers to monitor these polls closely. The BJP leader claimed that a battered Congress is now banking on criminal elements like land mafia, liquor mafia and mining mafia to contest these elections. He said that the rural electorate is angry at Congress for delaying the Panchayat polls and stopping the developmental works.
Negi cited the instances of Congress not finding even the booth agents in many villages as an example of this anger. The Panchayat polls in the state would be held in all the districts of the state barring Haridwar on June 18, 21 and 24. The polls were scheduled in the month of September last year but the state government postponed them on the plea that the elections would affect the disaster relief works. In the month of March when the elections were again scheduled the matter was taken in the high court and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court asked the state government to conduct these elections and even asked to submit the dates in the court.