BENGALURU: On a day when Chaambol Gram Panchayat in Bidar district was celebrating for being honoured on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti with Gandhi Gram Puraskar for being one of the best GPs in implementing rural development works, its Panchayat Development Officer (PDO) Mangala Kamble, tried to emulate the Mahatma by staying away from the function in protest against alleged harassment by some of the higher officials and elected representatives.
Kamble, in a letter to Principal Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department L K Atheeq, RDPR minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, alleged that officers and elected representatives had been harassing her and she is also facing a threat to her life for being an honest officer.
“It has become a crime to work honestly without adjusting to the corrupt system where public money is looted by the corrupt elected representatives and officers. As though it was not enough to harass me continuously, they have also initiated disciplinary action against me, filed false criminal cases against me, gave physical threats, let goondas against me to kill me, and the immense mental agony is pushing me to commit suicide. Senior officers and elected representatives have been responsible for all my harassments,” Kamble has said in her letter written on October 1.
Kamble has refrained from naming anyone in her letter stating that the system would not protect her if she revealed more details. “In spite of facing such obstacles and harassments, I will continue to work honestly in public interest. I will not close my eyes and mouth to corruption,” she said in the letter.