Bureau
Kaithal: The Sarpanch Association of Haryana (SAH) organised a state-level meeting at Amar Garden, Kaithal today, in which further strategy was discussed regarding the demands of the Sarpanchs. It was announced in the meeting that if all the demands are not met in the proposed talks with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on March 9, then on March 11 the CM's residence in Karnal will be gheraoed.
President of the Sarpanch Association, Ranbir Samain said that the state government is neither paying attention to the rural problems nor listening to the sarpanchs. Therefore, there will be a complete boycott of the representatives of both the BJP and JJP parties in the villages as a protest. Both parties' leaders will not be allowed to enter the villages in Haryana.
The leaders of the association strongly condemned the lathi charge held on the Sarpanchs in Panchkula and said that the movement could not be suppressed and all kinds of protest would continue till the demands are met.
State-level leaders and office bearers of the Sarpanch Association were present at the meeting. Prominent among the demands of Sarpanchs are the call to end e-tendering, not making family identity cards mandatory, and not implementing the Right to Recall rule on Sarpanchs. Apart from this, they also have objections to online attendance in MNREGA, because it becomes difficult to mark attendance if the network is weak in some areas. They are demanding that all the 29 rights given to the village panchayats in the 11th schedule of the 73rd amendment of the Constitution should be implemented.
There was a unanimous voice in the meeting that the government should return the rights of the Sarpanchs. The demand to increase the salary of sarpanchs to Rs 30,000, panchs to Rs 5,000 and MNREGA to Rs 600 per day was also reiterated. Santosh Beniwal (Vice President), Isham Singh (General Secretary), Ashish, Ravinder Kajal, Rakesh (IT Cell Head), Sandeep Gulia (Member), Narendra Kadayan, Chunni Lal (Treasurer), Ashish Kalwash, Nirbhay Kala, Sonu Dhakala, Sanjay Kuwari, Arif Hathodi (Press Spokesperson), Parveen, Ram Chander, Manoj, Ajit Singh, Surajpal, Sunder Lal, Neeraj Sharma, Sumer Dahiya, Mukesh, Chander Mohan Potalia and Sandeep were present at the meeting.