CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government will not accept resignations of panches and sarpanches secured by the Bharti Kisan Union various panthic bodies and militant organizations as a part of their noncooperation movement.
Deputy Commissioners have been asked to ignore the resignations as they would have been secured through coercive methods. The BKU proposes to collect resignations from village elders and hand them over to Deputy Commissioners.
There are about 75000 panches and sarpanches in Punjab representing some 10000 villages in the state. However all of them have exceeded their five year tenure as panchayat elections due in October 1988 were not held because of the prevailing law and order situation. The government wants village elders to remain in their posts as the panchayat elections continue to be postponed through notifications on grounds of adverse circumstances.
The panches and sarpanches have for long been under pressure of police and militants because both want them as collaborators. Several of them have lost their lives in the ongoing conflict between militants and security forces. As village elders play an important role in rural politics as also in matters of development their resignations if accepted would amount to the elimination of democracy at the grass roots official sources said.
Umrao Singh Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats is of the view that if a sarpanch resigns and is found to have done so voluntarily after personal verification by the concerned Deputy Commissioner the panches would be asked to elect a new sarpanch. He said that not all sarpanches would resign as some belonged to non-Akali parties. According to him the majorities of panches in most of the panchayats were against the resignation campaign and would resist pressures from the BKU and others to quit.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 29, 1992
