E-Paper
Prayagraj: Gram panchayat members willingly resigning to help kin get sahayak job
Uttar Pradesh government aims to appoint these panchayat sahayaks on a monthly salary of ₹6,000 stationed at Mini Sadans in villages where they would help the villagers avail the various e-services provided by the state government.
Parents are known to make huge sacrifices to fulfil the dreams of their kids and newly elected gram panchayat (GP) and block development council (BDC) members are no different across the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh. Despite winning hard fought polls to become gram panchayat members, many GP and BDC members are resigning to help their kids bag the job of panchayat sahayak or panchayat assistant, the recruitment process of which is now underway.
In Prayagraj alone, 35 panchayat members have tendered their resignations to facilitate their children’s eligibility to bag the job as a panchayat sahayak or panchayat assistant. The district has 19,820 posts of GP members and for which polls were held in April 2021.
In Bulandshahr also four gram panchayat members have resigned while in Pilibhit 23 individuals, including 20 gram panchayat members and three BDC members have resigned even as 27 persons, including 16 BDC and 11 gram panchayat members have resigned in Badaun.
In Bareilly, 40 gram panchayat members have relinquished their posts while in Lakhimpur Kheri maximum 160 gram panchayat members and 50 GP members in Shahjahanpur have also resigned from their posts for this very reason, confirmed officials of the state Panchayati Raj department.
Post Panchayat elections in April 2021, the state government announced its decision to appoint panchayat sahayaks across the state, but for its appointment it also put forth a condition: Any relative of a serving gram pradhan, block development council member, gram panchayat member etc would not be eligible for the post.
The government aims to appoint these panchayat sahayaks on a monthly salary of ₹6,000 stationed at mini sadans in villages. Here, the government proposes to have computer operators at panchayat bhawans where they would help the villagers avail the various e-services of the state government and its various departments.
In Prayagraj district alone, these panchayat sahayaks are to be appointed in 1540 gram sabhas and for whom the educational qualification is Intermediate pass. The craze for the job is such that around 500 aspirants having MBA and B Tech degrees too have applied for it. Officials, however, have made it clear that while making the merit list only the high school and intermediate marks of a candidate would be taken into account.
Among the applicants are also kin and kith of newly elected gram panchayat members who are now tendering their resignations to allow them to bag the jobs on offer.
One such Gram Panchayat member is Nirmala Devi of Daurahara village of Handia development block. “My son has applied for Panchayat Sahayak post and he is in desperate need of a job. Therefore, I have tendered my resignation so that his candidature for appointment does not get affected because of me being a Gram Panchayat member,” shared Nirmala Devi.
She is not the only one. “So far we have received resignations of 35 GP members from all over the Prayagraj district. These are the members whose children have applied for the post of panchayat sahayaks and the rules make it clear that they cannot be considered for the post if their parents or kin are elected members of Gram Panchayat or BDC etc,” informed district Panchayati Raj officer Alok Kumar.
Officials said, the application process for the post of panchayat sahayaks has been completed and even the block-level committees have submitted their report in this regard to the district-level committee and the work of screening of applicants of gram sabhas is now underway. The DPRO said that the list of selected candidates would become public any day.
