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Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008
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Pandemonium at PRI meet

Satyasundar Barik

Many leaders stage walk out over denial of power

Meeting suspended for one hour
March 5 to be observed as black day

BHUBANESWAR: Brewing resentment among representatives of grassroots Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) over ‘non-devolution of power’ reached a flash point here on Tuesday when majority of them staged a walk out at a meeting organised to orient them on a flagship health programme.

Workshop

Pleas of three senior ministers to maintain cool went unheard as the PRI representatives tore apart various policy papers and threw those into the wind creating pandemonium inside Jayadev Bhawan auditorium.

Everything was going on smoothly till the welcome song was sung at the sensitisation workshop on National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). As soon as the proceedings started, a group of members came to centre stage and shouted slogans over State Government’s failure to transfer various powers to PRIs as promised by it in the past.

Subsequently, the incensed representatives under the banner of Orissa State Panchayat Samiti Parishad (OSPSP) threatened not to cooperate with bureaucratic machinery anymore in the implementation of developmental projects.

Moreover, they declared to observe March 5 which is being observed as Panchayati Raj to commemorate the birth day of late legendary leader Biju Patnaik day as Black Day.

What made the PRI representatives see red?

“The State Government had announced that programmes under 19 subjects would be fully implemented by Zilla Parishad with funds, but the announcements remained on paper only.

We have been reduced to rubber stamps,” OSPSP Convener Manas Ranjan Acharya said.

Angry block chairmen shouted that although memoranda had been submitted to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thrice and twice to the Panchayati Raj Minister Raghunath Mohanty highlighting their grievances, nothing had been done so far.

“Instead of handing over power to us, our authority has been squeezed over the years. It had negative impact on monitoring of developmental projects.

We should be given powers to put counter signature on all the bills of developmental projects,” Kahnu Charan Singh, Chairman of Banki Panchayat Samiti, said. With the situation going out of control, Revenue and Rural Development Minister Biswabhusan Harichandan requested the agitating members to stay calm.

Organisers finally suspended the meeting for one hour. But the consultation did not yield any compromising result. Most of the block chairmen boycotted the event while a few Zilla Parishad chairmen and PRI representatives were left behind in the auditorium as the scheduled meeting went ahead.

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