AAP wants to gain control over panchayat funds, says Majithia

Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today claimed to have exposed serious flaws in the conduct of panchayat elections in the state even as he asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government intends to appoint administrators in a majority of villages and get control over the panchayat funds.

Addressing a press conference here today along with other senior party leaders, Majithia said that the panchayat elections, being conducted after a delay of over a year, was also against all democratic norms and would prove to be a farce.

“It is shocking that the code of conduct was enforced 48 hours ago in the state but lists of villages reserved for different categories were not available in Block Development and Panchayat Offices (BDPOs) so far,” he said.

He said earlier, reservations were made on rotational basis but this time the list of villages was handed over to AAP MLAs and Halqa in-charges so as to allow them to implement quotas according to their whims and fancies.

“In village Balowali in block Tarsika of Amritsar district, the panchayat had been reserved for the SC community even though there was no house of any member of the SC community in the village. The BDPO offices have been converted into forts by deploying heavy police force so as to prevent Opposition parties from approaching the BDPOs. Shockingly, BDPOs are not providing proper voter lists even as filing of nominations has already begun. Voters who voted in the Lok Sabha polls recently, are finding their names missing,” he said. He alleged that the timing of elections has been chosen deliberately during the paddy season knowing well that farmers would be busy in harvesting their crop and labour would be busy in mandis.

“The AAP government does not want people to vote and is doing all this so that it can appoint administrators in the villages so as to have control over panchayat funds,” he said. He also pointed out the high-handedness meted out to opponents to prevent them from contesting the elections. “In a village of Ajnala constituency, a former Sarpanch Braham Singh Jhander, who was a claimant for the AAP ticket during 2022 Assembly elections and was now set to contest the present panchayat polls against AAP, had been arrested in a false case and sent to jail,” he said.