Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today exposed serious flaws in the conduct of Panchayat elections in the Stare even as he asserted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government did not want people to participate in the elections so that it could appoint Administrators in majority of villages and have control over grants.
Addressing a press conference here along with other senior leaders, Mr. Bikram Majithia said “it is shocking that the code of conduct was enforced 48 hours ago in the state and lists of villages reserved for different categories were not available in Block Development and Panchayat Officers(BDPOs) till now”.
He said moreover BDPO offices had been converted into forts by deputing heavy police force so as to stop people from opposition parties from approaching BDPOs.Sharing glaring irregularities in reservation of Panchayats, the SAD leader said in village Balowali Block Tarsika of District Amritsar the Panchayat had been reserved for the SC community even though there was no house of any member of the SC community in the village.
He said earlier reservations were done on rotational basis but this time the list of villages were handed over to AAP MLAs and Halqa incharges so as to allow them to implement reservations according to their whims and fancies. He said even in the case of voter lists names of people who had voted in the Lok Sabha elections had been deleted.
Mr Majithia said besides irregularities the timing of elections has been chose deliberately during Paddy season knowing well that farmers were busy in harvesting their crop and labour was busy in mandis. “The AAP government does not want people to vote and is doing all this so that it can appoint Administrators in the villages so as to have control over Panchayat funds.
He said the same was being done presently by using Administrators after removal of Sarpanches. “If a CBI enquiry is conducted in MNREGA funds used during recent days, all JEs and other officials including Ministers will be found guilty of misuse of these funds”.
Mr Majithja also pointed out the high handedness being done to block opponents from contesting the elections. He said in a village of Ajnala constituency, a former Sarpanch Braham Singh Jhander, who was a claimant for the AAP ticket during 2022 Assembly elections and was now set to contest the present Panchayat polls against AAP had been arrested in a false case and sent to jail.
He said people were not getting NOCs and were unable to deposit Chulla tax in the offices of BDPOSs which are mandatory for contesting election. “Shockingly BDPOs are not providing voter lists even as filing of nominations had already begun”.He said the AAP government, which had come to power on its claim of transparency, had proved to be the most corrupt government of the State till date.
He said that the panchayat elections, which were being conducted after a delay of over a year, was also against all democratic norms and were proving to be a farce.On the occasion Jodh Singh Samra, Baljit Singh Jalalusma, Ranbir Singh Rana Lopoke, Ranjit Singh Chhajalwaddi and Rajwinder Singh Ladhe Distrit President (rural) were also present.