After Punjab and Rajasthan, factionalism in its Chhattisgarh unit is the next headache for the Congress. Days after Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel met party chief Sonia Gandhi and later set aside speculations of a change in leadership, a section of party MLAs has complained the party high command over the curtailment of powers of the Panchayats in the State. The grievance comes over the administrative measure that lays down a set of formulae for the Panchayats to engage agencies and determine the procurement rates.
“The Panchayats will now have to depend upon these agencies even for trivial works. The decision by the Government has not gone down well with the representatives of Panchayats who are said to be unhappy with it. At times when a nationwide campaign is going on to strengthen the grass root level Panchayati Raj Institutions across the country, the move by the Baghel Government to curtail the power of Panchayats in the State and to interfere in its activities, ranging from procurement to allocation of work, is surprising,” said a party representative camping in the national Capital to apprise the high command of the situation.
As per a section of party members from the State, the financial autonomy of these grass root level institutions is not only being curtailed but also ended in several ways by the Chhattisgarh Government. The complainants have given an emotional touch saying former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi had taken several initiatives to strengthen the Panchyati Raj institutions financially.
“The State Government’s attempt to bereft Panchayats of its autonomy and take decisions on its behalf goes against the spirit of strengthening these institutions. The Panchayats are quite capable of deciding about their work, choosing agencies that should be onboard for the procurement process and about how to ensure transparency. The Government can augur well by issuing guidelines for the same but need not necessarily interfere in their autonomy,” explained a senior party leader from the State visiting Parliament on Monday.
There has been new set of guidelines for the construction of toilets, biogas plants, solid waste management and procurement of essential equipment under “Swachh Bharat Mission” in Chhattisgarh. The elected representatives would now not be able to utilize the corpus of funds available with the Panchayats for undertaking these activities. Now, Nigam level officials would float tenders for such works. Also, approval from different agencies would be required for these activities. It is being speculated that such measures would promote the culture of middlemen and will increase the undue interference in the functioning and activities of Panchayats.
Baghel is also at loggerheads with Health Minister TS Singh Deo, a CM aspirant. Recently, Deo had even staged a walkout from the State Assembly after one of Baghel’s confidant, a tribal MLA, met with an accident which, he alleged, was carried out by Deo.