Chandigarh, Apr 19 (PTI) The BJP-JJP government in Haryana is running away from the panchayat polls, alleged Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala as he accused the ruling alliance of suppressing democratic rights of villagers.

He alleged that the BJP-JJP government has been "venomously treating" rural areas due to which more than 6,200 panchayats of the state are "lying defunct and unrepresented" for the past 14 months.

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The state government is running away from the panchayat elections for 14 months now to "keep rights of the panchayats with bureaucrats while suppressing democratic rights of villagers", he alleged.

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In a statement here, the senior Congress leader said only a few officers and employees are exercising powers of panchayats at the behest of BJP-JJP leaders.

Due to it, rampant corruption is prevailing in development works, he said.

"Half of the posts of block development panchayat officers and about 70 per cent posts of ‘gram sachiv' are lying vacant in the state in the absence of which villagers have to visit remote villages and nearby towns to meet the administrators even for their day-to-day issues," he said.

He said apart from local issues, panchayat representatives had powers for attestation of various documents but in the absence of panchayats, common people are forced to approach other officials who are mostly not available in their villages.

Surjewala said according to Article 243E of the Indian Constitution, the government is bound to conduct panchayat elections on time.

"The BJP-JJP government has violated the constitutional provisions by postponing the panchayat elections by 14 months," he claimed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)