PATIALA: The gram sahba of Thuha Patti in this district's Nabha division passed a resolution on Saturday for keeping the panchayat department's revenue share on the grounds that this money should remain in the village for its development.
Panchayat secretary Amrik Singh said he had advised the gram sabha against passing the resolution, but the villagers had disagree with him. He said: "Revenue from the panchayats is collected in accordance with the law." Villager Gurmeet Singh Thuhi, who mooted the proposal, said: "The village has a very low income from the common land and other sources, and even from this, the government takes away 30%."
He said: "All the villagers are members of the Gram Sabha and the Panchayati Act gives them the right pass any resolution with 20% voting. Several villages, including ours, have not received any government grant for almost a decade, even though successive ruling parties claimed false credit for supporting development." Sarpanch Yadvinder Singh said: "Our revenue should be for the development of our village alone."
State Institute of Panchayant and Rural Development's retired assistant professor Narinder Singh Sandhu said: "The state government has exploited the village panchayats for many years. No law was ever passed in state assembly for taking away 30% of the village revnue, yet it is being done on orders from the Punjab rural and panchayat department. The panchayats were freeer under the British. This revenue collection has gone from 10 to 30% in a few years and it goes to the panchayat samitis and zila parishads for their own staff's pay."
Panchayat department director G S Khaira said: "The collection is legal."
