Panchayat staff to protest ?scuffles?

EMPLOYEES AT Zila Panchayat and different Janpad panchayats in the district on Thursday announced a phased agitation to protest against repeated incidents of panchayat representatives scuffling with staff.

EMPLOYEES AT Zila Panchayat and different Janpad panchayats in the district on Thursday announced a phased agitation to protest against repeated incidents of panchayat representatives scuffling with staff.

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A recent incident occurred at Khachrod tehsil where Janpad president Ramlal Dhakar of the BJP allegedly beat up chief executive officer R P S Panwar two days ago. Moreover, Panwar’s complaint was not registered by the police at Khachrod. He had to come to Nagda where police registered a case and handed over the investigation to their Khachrod counterparts.

Panchayat employees’ leaders Gopal Patidar and Narendra Bhavsar alleged panchayat representatives used to pressurise them regularly to work according to their wishes, no matter whether the work was in accordance with the procedure or not. If their wishes were not addressed, public representatives filed false complaint under the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes Act, they said.

The agitating employees went to the police control room demanding immediate arrest of Ramlal Dhakar and stern action in such cases. They said the employees would carry wear ribbons for the next seven days and if their plea was not accepted, an aggressive agitation would be launched.

Zila Panchayat president Kanha Singh Rathore admitted that incidents of altercation happened between public representatives and employees because the representatives were not aware of proper rules and guidelines. He said the government should arrange training sessions for elected representatives so that they could have knowledge of the procedure.