Congress to oppose sub-panel proposals

Hyderabad: The Congress decided to oppose a few sections of the new Panchayat Raj (PR) Act proposed by the State government. The Congress will pitch for some of the proposals to be dropped from the act. The party decided to convene a meeting of the party leaders on the new PR Act on January 18 to discuss various proposals being formulated by the Cabinet Sub-Committee appointed to prepare draft of the bill.

The Congress had been opposing to indirect elections to the sarpanch post in the Gram Panchayats and also the use of party symbols for ward member elections. Party leaders said these proposals were against the spirit of the 73 and 74 amendments made to the  Constitution. Speaking to The Hans India, party senior leader M Kodanda Reddy said the reports in the media about the new PR Act are disturbing. Though they were not provided with draft of the PR bill, the media reports suggest that the government had been proposing some changes with vested interests.

Kodanda Reddy said the idea to hold indirect elections to sarpanch post was against the spirit of the 73 and 74 amendments to the Constitution. The objective behind these amendments was to strengthen the sarpanch post and to bar politics from the villages.

He said once party symbol is introduced in the ward member elections, the villages would divide on party lines and this will lead to unrest in the villages. The indirect method would lead to camp politics in villages. There is danger that the government may use its power to appoint a person of its choice as sarpanch with the help of officials, in the absence of direct election to the sarpanch post.

Kodanda Reddy said it would not be possible to hold elections to the sarpanch post under some circumstances under the indirect method. If the sarpanch post is reserved to BCs and if only one BC person is elected as ward member, he would automatically become the only choice for sarpanch.

The Congress is quite sore against government for not taking the main Opposition into confidence while preparing the draft of the bill. Party leaders said they never saw a government which had been ignoring the Opposition while making key policy decisions.

The party is also angry with the government as the new act would change the PR system being introduced through Constitutional amendments. The party would thoroughly discuss the proposals made in the bill and would decide its strategy to be adopted in the Assembly during the discussion on the bill, in the upcoming party leaders meeting.