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Haryana min faces protest over e-tendering of panchayat works
The incident happened when development and panchayats minister Devender Singh Babli was addressing jan pratinidhi samwad organised here for interaction with the elected representatives of panchayats
: Haryana minister of development and panchayats Devender Singh Babli on Friday faced protest from the elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), who accused the government of curtailing spending powers of village councils by imposing new rules of e-tendering of developmental projects.
The incident happened when Babli was addressing jan pratinidhi samwad organised here for interaction with the elected representatives of panchayats.
A group of village heads started raising slogans and accused the government of curtailing spending powers of village Panchayats by imposing new rules of e-tendering of developmental projects beyond ₹ 2 lakh.
The protesting sarpanches demanded the minister to immediately withdraw this decision to give more powers to the elected representatives of panchayats.
The protesters demanded the government to issue directions to the officials of panchayat departments to furnish details of expenditures occurred in all villages since February 2021, when the five-year tenure of previous panchayats expired.
A group of sloganeering sarpanches even left the venue before the minister could complete his address.
Later, in an interaction with the media, the minister clarified that the decision of e-tendering was introduced to put a check on corruption and ensure the timely completion of developmental projects.
He also said that those who were shouting during the programme do not appear to be elected representatives as an elected representative cannot behave like this.
“They were against this change introduced to counter corruption as they want old corrupt system to be restored,” he added.
He said that the protesters are misled as e-tendering will not curtail their powers and village panchayats will play the key role for any development project to be carried out in their respective villages.
