Congress-backed Punjab sarpanches up ante against MLAs

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 24

Not only its own MLAs, but even the grassroots-level torchbearers of the Congress — sarpanches and panches — have also raised a banner of revolt against the party, claiming they are being “ignored”.

Hundreds of sarpanches alleged their own MLAs had forgotten about the plight of villages and warned the government of facing the people’s wrath if they came to seek votes for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

“The government has failed to address the concerns of sarpanches who are suffering at the hands of bureaucracy and corrupt officials. This will cost the government dear in 2022,” said Ravinder Singh Rinku (Gurney), vice-president, Sarpanch Panchayat Union of Punjab.

“Pending MGNREGA payments and stalled development works in villages will only add to the woes,” he said.

These sarpanches claimed that a majority of them were Congress supporters, but they had been meted out a stepmotherly treatment by the government. “For next 10 days, no MLA or minister will be allowed to enter or hold any kind of event in any village. All our pleas to look into our demands to ensure speeding up of developmental works have fallen on deaf ears,” claimed union president Gurmeet Singh.

Around 8,000 union members are camping in Patiala against the state government, a majority of them Congress-backed. “While the state wants to rehire retired patwaris at Rs 25,000, it pays merely Rs 1,200 per month to a sarpanch. Even this meagre amount has not been paid for months,” claimed union members.