A day after the state authorities knowledgeable the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it’s going to withdraw its notification relating to the dissolution of over 13, 000 gram panchayats, the AAP authorities in Punjab on Friday suspended its two senior IAS officers for taking a “technically-flawed” determination.
The suspended officers are D. Okay. Tiwari, Financial Commissioner, Rural Development, and Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Director, Rural Development. The motion towards them has created furore in bureaucratic and political circles.
A duplicate of the file was in circulation on Friday morning that confirmed it having indicators of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the Rural Development Minister Laljit Bhullar and each IAS officers.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has questioned the federal government that why motion has been taken solely towards officers and the minister has been spared.
Responding to the row, a spokesperson for the Chief Minister’s Office stated the Chief Minister and the minister solely permitted “what the officers had put on the file. They were not informed by the officers that the due processes before declaration of elections and dissolution of panchayats were not followed by the officers”.
“As soon as the Chief Minister was apprised about the flaw in the notification, he ordered its withdrawal. How can they be responsible for the actions of the officers?” he stated.
Appearing earlier than the Bench headed by Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha, Advocate-General Vinod Ghai on Thursday knowledgeable that the notification of dissolving the panchayats can be withdrawn in a day or two.
Earlier, the federal government defended the choice within the courtroom, saying the gram panchayats have been functioning not as per constitutional provision.
Eleven writ petitions have been filed by representatives of the panchayat, questioning the choice to dissolve it.
One of the petitions acknowledged that the gram panchayats have been dissolved below Section 29-A of Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, over 5 months previous to the completion of the five-year time period.
The authorities had dissolved over 13, 000 panchayats within the state, with civic physique elections to be held in November