Chandigarh: Increase in limit for undertaking development works without e-tendering, inclusion of sarpanch’s post in the protocol list for government programmes and hike in expenditure ceiling for events organised by gram panchayats — these are some of the “sops” Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini has offered to village sarpanches ahead of assembly polls this year.
Saini announced the initiatives Tuesday, while addressing panchayat representatives from across the state at the Panchayati Raj and Sarpanch Sammelan held in Kurukshetra.
The sarpanches have been against the e-tendering policy for panchayat developmental works that was introduced by Saini’s predecessor Manohar Lal Khattar in February 2021, and are believed to have cost the ruling BJP votes in this year’s Lok Sabha polls. The party lost five of the 10 seats it won in the state in 2019.
The Saini government has now hiked the limit for development works without the process of e-tendering from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 21 lakh. Sarpanches can now also claim travel expenses at a rate of Rs 16 per km when using their car or taxi for panchayat work.
To make the reimbursement exercise easier, block development and panchayat officers have been empowered to approve the travel bills.
The post of sarpanch has been included in the protocol list for government programmes held in villages, allowing sarpanches to sit with the district commissioner and police superintendent at such events, and lawyers’ fee for court cases relating to panchayats has been hiked.
At the district or sub-division level, the fee has been increased from Rs 1,100 to Rs 5,500, and for cases in high courts and Supreme Court cases, from Rs 5,500 to Rs 33,000.
For Independence Day, Republic Day and visits by special officers or ministers, expenditure limit for events organised by gram panchayats has been raised from Rs 3,000 to Rs 30,000. The limit for expenses related to the national flag, distribution of sweets on festivals and publicising panchayat activities has been hiked from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000.
Further, the cost of soil filling has to now be included in the estimated project cost once the panchayat passes and sends the resolution. Previously, this cost was not included and was covered through MGNREGS funds or village funds. Also, junior engineers must prepare and upload project cost estimates within 10 days after a sarpanch uploads a resolution for development work on the Haryana Engineering Works portal.
Speaking to ThePrint, Ranbir Singh Samain, president of Haryana Sarpanch Association, however, dismissed the initiatives as an “eyewash” and said nothing short of implementation of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, in its true spirit, was acceptable to them.
“What is the meaning of increasing the spending limit when sarpanches can’t execute development works for their villages? BJP government has divided the development works among the panchayats, block samitis, and zila parishads. The panchayats are empowered only for the construction of streets and nalis (drains). We can’t construct buildings in our village or set up streetlights, which have been allocated to zila parishads,” he said.
“We can’t set up parks, which are under the domain of the block samitis now. For all these jobs, the villagers are at the mercy of other elected bodies, who may or may not choose a particular village for development projects. Under the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, all development works in a village are under the domain of the panchayat and the sarpanch by implication,” he asserted.
He added that the hike in limit for development works from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 21 lakh was also meaningless for several villages because the annual budget of several small villages was as low as Rs 30 lakh. Another provision in the Panchayati Raj rules states that works without e-tendering can’t exceed 50 percent of the total budget, Samain pointed out.
Also Read: Days after lathicharge, Haryana sarpanches continue stir against e-tendering rule: ‘Won’t bow down’
The tiff
The BJP government in Haryana has been embroiled in a face-off with the sarpanches ever since the state government amended Rule 134 of the Panchayati Raj Act in 2021, and mandated that development work worth over Rs 5 lakh had to be done through e-tendering process.
Things, however, came to a head only towards the end of 2022, because the term of the previous panchayats had ended in February 2021 itself. Fresh panchayat elections were held in October-November 2022, and the results were announced on 27 November.
Since then, sarpanches have been protesting against the amendment. The government’s rationale is that earlier, under Rule 134, Panchayati Raj Institutions could allocate any development work to anyone without issuing tenders, and this led to corruption.
But the sarpanches are alleging that this takes away their powers as it routes all development work through government officials.
On 1 March last year, the agitating sarpanches were allegedly cane-charged by the police at Panchkula after they announced a permanent sit-in on the Chandigarh-Panchkula border.
Adding fuel to the fire, the Haryana government in July last year made amendments in the Haryana Panchayati Raj Rules of 1995. The new rules, known as the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Rules of 2023, mandated that any grant-in-aid provided by the state to gram panchayats, panchayat samitis or zila parishads must be used solely for the purpose for which it is assigned.
The amendments further specified that the state government holds the authority to direct these panchayat bodies to perform certain functions, fulfil duties, or undertake development projects using their allocated funds, a move seen as undermining the position of sarpanches further.
During the parliamentary polls this year, the Sarpanch Association had opposed the BJP, particularly Khattar and Saini, in Karnal from where they were the BJP candidates for the parliamentary and assembly bypoll, respectively. The Sarpanch Association had organised a meeting in Karnal and decided to oppose the BJP, with 520 of the 573 sarpanches participating.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Why Haryana’s sugarcane farmers are threatening to intensify stir over support prices