SRINAGAR: General Secretary and the spokesman of Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Raj Cell for (Kashmir division) Altaf Thakur strongly condemned the humiliation and harassment caused to a delegation of Sarpanchs by Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal stating that the no government official is authorized to misbehave with the elected representatives of people, who despite putting their lives on the line, strengthened grass root level democracy in the State.
In a statement issued here, Thakur said that a delegation of Sarpanchs had gone to Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal’s office to discussed issues of important nature, but they were kept waiting outside his office for hours and when they insisted to meet the Deputy Commissioner, they were pushed back, manhandled and abused by the personal guards of DC Ganderbal causing immense harassment and humiliation to the elected representatives.
Thakur urged the Governor Satya Pal Malik to take the cognizance of the matter and to initiate an action against the DC Ganderbal for misbehaving with the elected representatives of the State, who were elected by none other than the people of the State in difficult times when State badly needs Panchayati Raj to flourish on all fronts.
Thakur said that when officers of DC rank would misbehave and ask their guards to forcibly push the Sarpanchs back from his office premises, how the governance can be taken to its grass root level. Thakur sought immediate apology from the District Development Commissioner Ganderbal and asked him to treat Sarpanchs with full honour and to give them proper time whenever they come to meet him. (PTK)
