Payment of Rs 1 lakh as commission to Sarpanch
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 14: In a significant judgment, the First Puisne Judge of J&K High Court Justice Rajesh Bindal while dismissing a writ petition filed by seven Panches of Panchayat Halqa Upper Kandi (District Rajouri), has directed the Director Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Jammu to look into the serious allegations leveled by petitioners with regard to payment of Rs. one lakh as commission to the Sarpanch Panchayat Halqa Upper Kandi (District Rajouri) namely Parveen Akhter on April, 4, 2020 in presence of her husband Mohd. Ayoub Khan and son Shah Nawaz Ayoub.
The petitioners in the writ petition submitted that they are Panches of different wards had engaged the poor people of their wards who were Below Poverty Line as Labourers under MGNREGA Scheme and alleged that when they demanded the wages from the Sarpanch of the area she made a demand of Rs. 1 lakh as commission and promised that on receipt of same an amount of Rs 15 lakh will be released as wage payment in favour of all 7 wards of Panchayat Halqa Upper Kandi.
After hearing Advocate S.S. Ahmed appearing for the petitioners whereas Senior AAG Seema Shekhar appearing for the Government of J&K, the Judge took serious note of the aforesaid allegations of corruption and observed that a perusal of the pleadings in the aforesaid paragraphs show that it is a case where money is exchanging hands among the Panches and Sarpanches. Allegations in the writ petition are supported by affidavit.
The residents of the Gram Sabha area may be the sufferers, as with the sharing of funds allocated by the Government for development in the area, the same may not have been utilized for the purpose these were earmarked or the poor labourers may have been paid lesser wages than they were entitled to or the payment without there being any work executed on ground.
The First Puisne Judge further observed that despite there being serious allegations in the petition, the Competent Authority thought it appropriate to keep silence as is the usual practice and let the matter die down. Public money, contributed by the tax payers cannot be allowed to be squandered like this and the matter needs to be enquired into. It is not simplicitor a case of passing of no confidence motion against the Sarpanch. The allegations are quite serious and the matter should be looked into by the Director Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Jammu and the same should be taken to the logical end.
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