Ranchi, Oct 18 (PTI) Union Minister Kapil Moreshwar Patil on Tuesday said panchayat representatives are key to development of any village.

He was addressing a programme organised by the BJP here to felicitate the representatives.

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"Panchayat public representatives are key to development of villages... Jharkhand is the first state in the country where panchayat representatives are being felicitated at the state level," Patil said.

The union minister of state for panchayati raj noted that the Centre provided Rs 2,938 crore in 2020-21 for development of the villages in Jharkhand and has planned to spend Rs 8,574 crore in five years.

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Addressing the function, BJP state president and MP Deepak Prakash claimed that the Hemant Soren government was “forced” to hold pending panchayat elections, earlier in the year, after the BJP held agitations for the same.

Prakash alleged that law and order machinery has "collapsed" in the state under the present JMM-led coalition regime.

"In the past 32 months, 575 girls and women were raped," he said.

BJP's national vice president and former chief minister Raghbar Das said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to uplifting all villages in Jharkhand.

(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)