By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 30 May: State Congress President Pritam Singh has termed the decision of the State Cabinet to grant the right of approval of expenditure from the panchayat funds to the District Magistrate and Ministers in charge of the districts as impractical and anti-democratic. Singh claimed that such a decision would encourage corruption and was symbolic of the dictatorial tendency of the state government.
Questioning the decision of the state cabinet, Pritam Singh said that due to its failures, the state government could not conduct the elections of the panchayats in time, as a result of which the district panchayats and gram panchayats were suffering. The state government was ready to kill democracy by taking such a decision in the state cabinet, he alleged. The state cabinet was trying to make panchayats a puppet in their hands and kill democracy by giving the powers of district planning committees to the District Magistrate and ministers in charge of the districts.
Singh alleged that the decision of the state cabinet was a conspiracy to divert funds of development schemes in panchayats as the district planning committee had not been constituted. The Congress party strongly opposed this dictatorial decision of the state government, he asserted.
The Congress State President also said that the government was murdering democracy by nominating persons of its choice on 4951 posts instead of holding elections on them and that the decision to nominate administrators on 105 gram pradhan posts also stemmed from the desire to usurp democratic rights of the panchayats.
