Chandigarh: An effort towards “good governance” can sometimes backfire. This is precisely what is happening to the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana ever since it introduced e-tendering for development work by the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
The decision was taken in February 2021 when the state government amended Rule 134 under the PRI Act, and said development work worth over Rs 5 lakh had to be done through e-tendering process. The amount has further been reduced to Rs 2 lakh since.
Things, however, came to a head only towards the end of 2022, because the term of panchayats had ended in February 2021 itself. Fresh panchayat elections were held in October-November 2022, and the results were announced on 27 November.
Sarpanches have since been up in arms against the decision. The government’s rationale is that earlier, under Rule 134, PRIs could allocate any development work to anyone without issuing tenders, and this led to corruption.
But sarpanches are alleging that this takes away their powers as it routes all development work through government officials.
Haryana Panchayat minister and BJP ally Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP’s) Devender Singh Babli added fuel to fire last week by saying that only ‘chale huye kartoos’ (spent forces) were agitating against the decision.
Earlier, on 18 December, Babli was not allowed to speak at a programme in his home district Fatehabad amid protests by sarpanches. He had gone there to address elected PRI representatives but the angry sarpanches didn’t let him speak.
Now sarpanches across the state have threatened to hold a protest against him at his home constituency of Tohana when he is scheduled to visit it on 15 January. They are also planning their state-level meeting there.
In the past couple of months, they have held protests in Hisar, Karnal, Sonipat and Panipat.
Also read: Why Haryana’s sugarcane farmers are threatening to intensify stir over support prices
‘Khattar govt doesn’t trust panchayats’
Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has taken up the cause of the agitators, saying the government doesn’t trust elected representatives either.
“The Khattar government’s distrust of elected representatives can be gauged from the fact that it first delayed panchayat elections by over a year. Now, when the panchayats are in place, it doesn’t trust them,” Hooda said to ThePrint Thursday.
If the government wanted to divest elected representatives of their powers, why did it hold elections at all, he asked.
The issue came up in the three-day winter session of the state assembly which began on 26 December, 2022, where the Opposition reminded the government of its 2017 decision when the financial limit of work to be executed by panchayats was increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. They asked why the power of sarpanches has now been reduced from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
In further embarrassment to the BJP-led government, an MLA of coalition partner JJP also questioned the rationale behind the decision during the winter session. JJP’s Barwala MLA Jogi Ram Sihag asked Panchayat minister Babli, also a party colleague, to spell out the “compelling reasons” due to which the state government decreased the financial limit of work to be executed by the panchayats.
“In the name of e-tendering, the powers of gram panchayat sarpanches to execute development work has been drastically reduced from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Are these sarpanches corrupt? Instead of diluting their powers, the government should have empowered the sarpanches,” said Sihag during the Zero Hour in the Vidhan Sabha, as per a report.
According to CM Khattar’s 28 December statement, work worth over Rs 2 lakh will be done through a tender on the Haryana Engineering Works portal.
Agitators ‘ready for protracted stir’
Meanwhile, agitating sarpanches are in no mood to relent.
Nar Singh Duhan, president of the sarpanch association of Hisar district, was quoted in a report Tuesday that they were not happy with the process of e-tendering. He said the work carried out in the past two years through e-tendering was of poor quality and substandard material was used. He also alleged that e-tendering was just a way to allot work to contractors close to the authorities.
Issam Singh, president of Nilokheri Sarpanch Association in Karnal district, told ThePrint Thursday that e-tendering must go or the agitators were ready for a protracted stir.
He said earlier, the sarpanchs had the right to execute work up to Rs 20 lakh on their own. “The limit should have been increased to Rs 30 lakh (instead of reducing it),” Singh said.
On its part, the government has also dug its heels in. Panchayat minister Babli said only those who siphoned government funds in the past were behind this agitation.
Speaking to ThePrint Thursday, Babli said, in the past, panchayats have reported spending Rs 25 lakh for work that could easily have been completed in Rs 10 lakh.
He said that under the new system, only the sub-divisional officer will be able to provide technical approval to work ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 25 lakh and the sarpanch and chairman of block samiti and zila parishad will be able to give administrative approval for this.
E-tendering has been introduced only to ensure that every paisa is utilised only for development work, he added.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: Khemka vs Verma: In Haryana IAS-IAS battle, FIRs, tweets & now a corruption charge