Sarpanch body demands Meena’s resignation, puts ‘polity’ in dock!
Jaipur: Instances of raising slogans and agitations against ministers is a normal occurrence, but these occur at the local level owing to political rivalry wherein, the supporters of any politician show black flags to the minister in target. However, one recent instance associated with a minister is not only bizarre, but also uncommon. In fact, it is first of its kind incident in the political and administrative history of the state, wherein, no public or party workers rather more than 10,000 public representatives of minister’s own department have been carrying out agitations, protests and even burning his effigies. Such is the situation that the agitators are now demanding Chief Minister to suspend the minister.
The minister in question in Panchayati Raj Minister Ramesh Meena and the agitators are the Sarpanch under the banner of Pradesh Sarpanch Sangh. The President of the Sangh Banshidhar Gadhwal has announced that on August 5, all the Sarpanch of the state would stage a sit-in against the minister at Jaipur. Although the Sarpanchs are agitating for the past 20 days and they have also stopped holding the Fortnightly meetings of Gram Sabhas, which were otherwise, organised on 5th and 20th of every month. The Sarpanch Sangh has also held a major rally in Nagaur as well.
The Sarpanchs are angry with Meena over his recent statement wherein, he claimed that a scam worth Rs 300 crore has taken place in MNREGA work of Nagaur, Jaisalmer and Barmer for which he named Sarpanch as those responsible. He claimed that fake payments were being done while no work has been done on the ground level. Meena has claimed that the scam and irregularities have been done on a major level and demanded an investigation into the matter. It is said that right from engineer till senior officials, are all engrossed in this scam. The Sarpanchs however maintain that the minister has levelled allegations without investigation and evidence. They say that minister’s comment has dishonoured the Sarpanchs giving them a bad name and hence have demanded a public apology from the Minister while also demanding his suspension from the group of ministers. The Sarpanchs have also accused the Minister that although he has laid accusations on Sarpanchs, but in his constituency, contractors working for MNREGA and Jal Jeevan Mission are all that are being conserved by the Minister. It has already been 20 days since the agitation started and the ‘Mahapadao’ will be held on August 5. Hence, it will be difficult to say as to when will this agitation end and how? However, the work of gram panchayats is definitely getting affected.
