Minister administers oath to 3K Rupnagar panches

Minister of School Education, Higher and Technical Education Harjot Singh Bains administered oath to 3,410 panches of Rupnagar at the Police Lines ground here.

Bains said panchayats were known as the ‘pillars of democracy’ as they have immense power and their decisions were followed by the entire village. People of the state had given powers to sarpanches and panches and it was the primary duty of the panchayats to protect their interests.

The minister also congratulated the 131 unanimously elected panchayats.

Rupnagar MLA advocate Dinesh Kumar Chadha told all panchayats to forget factionalism and work together for the development and welfare of villages by taking residents along.

Deputy Commissioner, Rupnagar, Himanshu Jain, Senior Superintendent of Police, Rupnagar, Gulneet Singh Khurana, Additional Deputy Commissioner (D) Chandrajyoti Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner (G) Pooja Seyal Grewal and SP Rajpal Singh Hundal were among those others present.

1,924 panches of Mohali take oath

Mohali: Punjab Public Works and Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO administered the oath of office to newly elected 1,924 panches of the district in Mohali on Tuesday. In his address, he appealed to panchayats to set aside any factionalism that might had arisen during the panchayat elections and work together for the development and welfare of villages.

He said gram panchayats had been given the right to work on 29 subjects. During the ceremony, the minister called panch Bandna of Bhankharpur and panch Manpreet Kaur of Dhadak Kalan to the dais to motivate women power while administering the oath to the panches as 50 per cent women elected during the panchayat elections. Meanwhile, Malvinder Singh Kang, LS member from Sri Anandpur Sahib, said a panchayat was responsible for village development works, managing youth power, preparing sports grounds, maintaining schools and undertaking charitable works such as health centres. Earlier, MLA Kulwant Singh encouraged them to rise above party politics and factionalism and demonstrate their commitment through their work. Deputy Commissioner Aashika Jain also attended the event.