Demand for district headquarters in Mahendragarh takes centre stage
The long-standing demand of locals regarding the establishment of district headquarters in Mahendragarh city has taken a centre stage during the Assembly elections as voters are flagging this issue before the candidates in fray.
Mahendragarh is only such district in the state having the district headquarters in Narnaul town, which is located 25 km away from here. Many a time, several protests were organised by locals, including advocates and traders, in the past to mount pressure on the state government, but to no avail.
“People of Mahendragarh city and Satnali town have to go to Narnaul for every administrative work as all senior officers sit there, hence we have been raising the demand for district headquarter to be established in the city for long. The easiest way to meet the demand is to make Narnaul a separate district,” said advocate Bansi Lal Yadav.
He said the advocates, along with traders and people of other fraternity, had staged a dharna for 86 days on the court premises two years ago regarding this demand. The then Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, assured them of fulfilling the demand while adopting a procedure in this respect but nothing had been done so far, hence the issue was being raised prominently in these elections, he added.
“The issue is so significant that every candidate in fray is promising us to get this demand met on coming to power, hence we are hopeful about something positive after the formation of new government,” said Yadav, adding that an indefinite dharna was also staged outside Mini-Secretariat here for the same demand in August, but it was suspended after the model code of conduct (MCC) came into being.
Ram Niwas Patoda, who has been flagging the demand for long, said the people of the city had been deprived of the facility of district headquarters for the past 58 years.
“Acting on the demand, the state government had, some years ago, directed senior administrative and police officers of the district to hold janta darbar in the city once a week to redress the public grievances. The practice continued for several months but now higher-ranking officials do not come here regularly,” he added.
Meanwhile, outgoing Mahendragarh MLA and Congress candidate Rao Dan Singh said the Congress would fulfil this long-pending demand after coming to power. “Narnaul will be made a separate district while district headquarters will be established in Mahendragarh city for residents’ convenience,” he said.
