Dehra residents resent shifting of panchayats
Rajiv Mahajan
Nurpur, August 6
A lot of resentment is brewing among residents of the Nagrota Surian development block for shifting 10 out of 55 gram panchayats of their block to the neighbouring Dehra development block in Kangra district.
Last week, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu fulfilled his poll promise by issuing a notification to transfer 27 gram panchayats to the Dehra development block, including 10 panchayats — Sakri, Bilaspur, Dhar Dhagad, Guler, Masroor, Bhatehad, Nandpur Ludret and Gathutar — from the Nagrota Surian development block and 17 from the Paragpur block. But, this notification has triggered resentment among the residents of Nagrota Surian in the Jawali Assembly constituency, which is represented by Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar.
After issuance of the government notification, the Block Development Committee (BDC) of Nagrota Surian strongly opposed merging of its gram panchayats in the Dehra development block. Recently, the BDC has passed a resolution against the government decision.
Dhiraj Attri, vice chairman of the Nagrota Surian BDC, told The Tribune that the BDC, through its resolution, had appealed to the Chief Minister to review the decision as after merging ten panchayats with the Dehra development block, the residents would face hardship in commuting to Dehra, which is around 30 km away, while the Nagrota Surian development block office was only at a distance of 3-5 km.
The residents of the affected gram panchayats are also pleading that they were getting other facilities like education, health and daily commodities from nearby Nagrota Surian town, but shifting their panchayats from this block would cause them inconvenience.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Guleria, BJP leader from the Jawali Assembly constituency, said the elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions were not openly opposing the government’s decision as Chief Minister’s wife Kamlesh Thakur had recently won the Dehra byelection.
He also appealed to the Chief Minister to reconsider the decision of transferring 10 panchayats from the Nagrota Surian development block in larger public interest.
Resolution passed against decision
- Last week, the Sukhu-led government issued a notification to transfer 27 gram panchayats to the Dehra development block, including 10 panchayats from the Nagrota Surian development block and 17 from the Paragpur block
- The Block Development Committee (BDC) of Nagrota Surian has strongly opposed merging of its gram panchayats in the Dehra development block by passing a resolution against this decision
