Aujla, Cong workers protest at BDPO office over ‘irregularities’

In view of the panchayat elections to be held on October 15, Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla on Monday reached the BDPO office for surprise inspection only to find irregularities.

When Aujla reached the Rani Ka Bagh office in Block Verka at 12.45 pm, he found the secretary absent in the office, following which he along with other Congress leaders staged a protest there.

Aujla was accompanied by former MLA Sunil Dutti, former chairman of Improvement Trust Dinesh Bassi, former councillor Vikas Soni, former panches and sarpanches of many villages, who staged a sit-in at the BDPO office for about three hours and raised slogans against the Punjab Government till the SDM reached the spot.

At the same time, the protesters gave a warning that if the situation does not improve, then a sit-in will be held at a bigger level.

Aujla alleged that the Secretary, BDOs and BDPOs were working under the pressure of the state government and MLAs are acting as if they were election officers. “How could it be free and fair elections? All claims of the government seem farce,” he said.

“Since morning people are coming to this office, but the secretary was not present due to which they were not able to get the receipt of Chulha Tax. Additionally, there are many flaws in the voter lists. Votes of many people have been cancelled and many people have died years ago, but their names are still in the voter list. When they reach the BDPO office to solve all these problems, officers are not present. Complaints of all the blocks are same,” he said.

He said everyone has the right to vote but if we talk about Amritsar only, then around 50,000 votes have been cancelled here. In many villages, the votes of current sarpanches were cancelled.

As per the instructions, elections will be held according to the voter lists of 2017. “As per the 2017 list, the number of votes in a village was mentioned to be 1945, whereas according to the lists of 2023, around 945 votes have been cut, for which no officer is present on the seat to give clarification and people are constantly getting pushed around,” he said.

He said he will visit other rural assembly segments too.