Unfortunate that CM opposed court orders on PRI poll: Jai Ram

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jai Ram Thakur today attended the executive committee meeting of the state BJP Panchayati Raj cell in Una as the chief guest. This meeting was organised to discuss the BJP’s preparations for the upcoming Panchayati Raj elections and to deliberate on the strategies to ensure victory of BJP-supported candidates in these elections.

Addressing mediapersons before the meeting, Jai Ram Thakur said the state Congress government was trying to postpone the elections of the Panchayati Raj Institutions by stating that the Disaster Management Act was in place. He said the truth was that seven months have passed since disaster struck the people of the state, but the government has yet to provide relief to those affected or repair the damaged infrastructure citing lack of funds.

The former CM said elections to PRIs were held every five years. Challenging the delaying tactics of the state government, some people had approached the High Court on the matter. He said the HC ordered the state government to complete election preparations by the end of February and conduct the elections in April. The CM should complete all election formalities by the end of February and hold elections to PRIs by the end of April. He said it was unfortunate that the CM himself disrespectfully opposed the court orders, adding that the High Court should take cognizance and register a case for contempt against the Chief Minister.

Referring to the opposition to the ‘Viksit Bharat’ G RAM G scheme by state Congress leadership, Thakur said this is the first time that a Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues are staging protests against the Central government, which is contrary to the Principles of a Federal structure in the country. He said that the Central government is merely strengthening the MGNREGA scheme, not shutting it down.