In a bid to pacify the agitating sarpanches over the implementation of e-panchayat system in Haryana, the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in the State on Wednesday announced that one tab or iPad each will be provided to all sarpanches to link the panchayats with e-panchayat concept, and to enable them to send messages.
The Government has also announced that the sarpanches can also keep any youth of their village as computer operator for e-panchayat.
These announcements were made by State Development and Panchayats Minister, OP Dhankar while addressing sarpanches from all over the State at Haryana Panchayat Bhawan, here.
Dhankar said their demands would be considered sympathetically. A committee would be constituted for the purpose with representative from each district to present suggestions to the Chief Minister, said he.
Demands of every individual were heard and suggestions were sought at the meeting.
Series of meetings were held by Dhankar throughout the day on Wednesday to resolve the issues of representatives of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs).
Earlier in the day, Dhankar met sarpanches from various villages at his residence to listen to the concerns related to e-panchayat system. While the sarpanches were invited to meet the Chief Minister Manohar Lal here on Wednesday, Dhankar met two separate groups of sarpanches, first at his residence and later, at Panchayat Bhawan.
After meeting Dhankar at his residence in the afternoon, the sarpanches had alleged that the government is trying to create divide in the sarpanches associations and the meeting has failed to end on a positive note.
Later, the Minister met another delegation of sarpanches at Panchayat Bhawan, where he made various announcements to appease the agitating representatives of PRIs.
Another round of meeting was held at Dhankar’s residence during late evening in another effort to redress the grievances of sarpanches and the talks ended on a positive note.
While addressing the sarpanches at Panchayat Bhawan, Dhankar said soon ,a meeting of gram sachivs would be held with officers of the department. The nine suspended gram sachivs are also a part of the department and their views would also be heard sympathetically.
He said e-Panchayat concept was not applicable to the development works carried out till March 31,2018, but would be applicable to new works for which the department would make available necessary infrastructure. Now, panchayats would be allowed to send the draft of Gram Vikas Yojana four times in a year, said he.
Sarpanches would be able to withdraw cash up to Rs 25,000 any time from banks and old bank accounts lying dormant would be reopened. The sarpanches would be authorised to give daily wages for development works.
“We are moving on the right track to make panchayats of the 21st century and must keep away from the politics of previous leaders who were pushing them back into the 17th century,” he added.
Dhankar further said the present government had raised the cap on development works to be executed by gram panchayats to Rs 20 lakh which was never done by any previous government.
An Awaas Yojana would be launched to provide houses to every family in the villages. On the basis of the 2011 census, BPL survey is being carried out by a cabinet sub-committee which has been constituted under his chairmanship, he said.
Dhankar told the sarpanches that they were authorised to get eligible beneficiaries included in the list, and remove the ineligible beneficiaries. District Yamunanagar is the first district in the state where e-Panchayat has been implemented, and it is working for the last six months on PRIA software, he informed.
At Panchayat Bhawan meeting, Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Karan Dev Kamboj, MLAs namely Pawan Saini, Gian Chand Gupta, and Bakhshish and senior government officers were also present.
At present, 3638 gram panchayats out of 6204 in the state are onboard in e-panchayat and are at different stages of data entry and progress.
Notably, many sarpanches and gram sachivs during the past few days had organised demonstrations against the e-panchayat system at many places in Haryana. The demands of the protesters include withdrawal of the e-panchayat system with immediate effect, execution of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, remuneration for gram sachivs on a par with patwaris and pension for gram sarpanches among others.
The State Government had earlier announced that if any gram panchayat does not want to switch over to e-panchayat, a resolution of the gram panchayat fully endorsed by the gram sabha should be submitted in this regard. However, the financial powers for such gram panchayats will be kept at Rs 10 lakh instead of recent enhanced amount of Rs 20 lakh.