CHANDIGARH: A day after the state government informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it would withdraw its notification regarding the dissolution of over 13,000 gram panchayats, the AAP government in Punjab on Friday suspended its two senior IAS officers for taking a "technically-flawed" decision.
The suspended officers are D. K. Tiwari, Financial Commissioner, Rural Development, and Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Director, Rural Development. The action against them has created a furore in bureaucratic and political circles.
A copy of the file that was in circulation on Friday morning showed it had the signatures of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the Rural Development Minister Laljit Bhullar and both IAS officers.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has questioned the government as to why action has been taken only against officers and the minister has been spared. A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said that the Chief Minister and the minister only approved "what the officers had put on the file. They were not informed by the officers that due processes before the declaration of elections and dissolution of panchayats had not been followed by them".
"As soon as the Chief Minister was apprised about the flaw in the notification, he ordered its withdrawal. How can they be responsible for the actions of the officers?" the spokesperson asked.
Appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha, Advocate-General Vinod Ghai on Thursday informed that the notification of dissolving the panchayats would be withdrawn in a day or two.
Earlier, the government defended the decision in the court, saying the gram panchayats were functioning not as per constitutional provision.
Eleven writ petitions were filed by representatives of the panchayat, questioning the decision to dissolve it.
One of the petitions stated that the gram panchayats had been dissolved under Section 29-A of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, more than five months prior to the completion of the five-year term.
The government had dissolved over 13,000 panchayats in the state, with civic body elections to be held in November.