Why has DoP left Panchayati Raj to the mercy of Almighty?

Jaipur: The treatment given to Panchayati Raj Department in the new administrative reshuffle is surprising and beyond comprehension. Till now, the department had an ACS, Abhay Kumar at the helm and a full time Secretary, Ravi Jain, who also served as HOD (Commissioner). But all these three posts have been left vacant. The additional charge of Secretary and Commissioner has been given to 2005 batch IAS, Jogaram. It is worth noting that Panchayati Raj is the most important and largest department of the government and about 75 % rural administration of the entire state is handled through this department.

A major part of the state administration and many development schemes of the Centre and the States are implemented through this department. There are a total of 11,200 Panchayats and Village Development Officers and the same number of Sarpanches working under this department. Above them there are a total of 350 Panchayat Samitis and 350 Block Development Officers (BDO). The command of a Panchayat Samiti is in the hands of a Pradhan. Then above all, there are 33 Zila Pramukhs, for whose help 33 CEOs (RAS officials ) are posted along with 70 Assistant CEOs (ACEO) in all.

From the above mentioned numbers, it can be guessed how huge this department is. That is why, in all the governments, the reins of this department has always been with senior officers of ACS or Principal Secretary rank. There have been stellar IAS like CS Rajan, Srimat Pandey, Rajeshwar Singh, who have held the reins of this department and even now, before the latest reshuffle, the team of ACS Abhay Kumar and Secretary Ravi Jain was handling the department.

But no one knows why, and for what purpose or if by mistake, the DoP left this department at the mercy of the Almighty as no one was appointed and this department was given as additional charge to Jogaram, a relatively Junior Secretary of 2005 batch.

Experts believe that Jogaram has the important responsibility of sensitive departments like GAD, Civil Aviation and other important departments. Moreover, ignoring many other senior and experienced officers in the Secretariat, the rationale for entrusting the department to Jogaram is neither appropriate nor logical and is beyond understanding.

Apart from this, another serious fact is worth mentioning in this context. The work of Rural Development Department goes hand in hand with Panchayati Raj and the head of both the departments has been a senior IAS. Even till the recent IAS shuffle, ACS Abhay Kumar had the unified command of both the departments which were being handled by two different Secretaries.

Now, by separating the departments, the command of Rural Development has been given to ACS Sreya Guha, but Panchayati Raj has been left vacant and administrative experts have failed to understand the rationale behind this new arrangement and experiment. What is DoP’s reason behind such a bizarre move?