On the occasion of National Panchayati Raj day, the Congress on Tuesday charged the Narendra Modi Government of systematically annihilating the Panchayati Raj system in the country by starving the panchayats of funds.
Talking to reporters here, AICC spokesperson PL Punia said, ‘even as the Prime Minister goes on to give his now characteristic, misleading and propogandist speech about ‘Rashtriya Grameen Swaraj Abhiyan’, the Indian National Congress would like to bring to the notice of the people of India that during the last four years Shri Narendra Modi’s government has systematically annihilated the entire Panchayati Raj System in the country by starving the Panchayats of funds and making them beggars before respective State Governments.’
Mr Punia alleged that the Narendra Modi Government and many States ruled by the BJP and its allies like UP, Haryana, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir etc failed to bring about any incremental legislation that could ensure 50 per cent reservations for women.
‘The Narendra Modi Government and many States ruled by the BJP and its allies like UP, Haryana, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir etc failed to bring about any incremental legislation that could ensure 50% reservations for women. On the contrary, regressive legislations in Rajasthan and Haryana with regards to educational qualifications only ended up ensuring that already marginalized persons became ineligible from contesting elections on grounds of in-sufficient qualification,’ Mr Punia said.
Charging the Narendra Modi Governmet of discontinuing the Centrally Sponsored Schemes like the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) and decapacitating schemes like MNREGA, the Rajiv Awas Yojana, Anganwadi and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Mr Punia said, ‘discontinuing the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, like the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) and decapacitating schemes like MNREGA, the Rajiv Awas Yojana, Anganwadi and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) etc, the Modi Government ensured that the Panchayati Raj Institutions had no funds and effectively nothing to implement under their jurisdiction. As if this was not enough, the government for all practical purposes shut down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj by draining it of any substantive budgetary allocations.’
‘On this day, in the name of the Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress Party would like to request the Prime Minister to stop invoking Mahatma’s name in his fake jumlas and stop fooling the people of this country by renaming schemes, in this instance the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan to Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan,’ Mr Punia said.
Mr Punia said that it was an occasion to remember the modern champions of Panchayati Raj and decentralized governance, Mahatma Gandhi and the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who constitutionally institutionalized Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) through the land mark 73rd Constitutional Amendment by inserting a new part IX to Article 243 and the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India.
