38 village sarpanchs in Gurugram district protest inclusion in MCG

Gurugram, Sep 24 (IANS) In protest against the inclusion of 38 villages of the Gurugram district into the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), people of 38 gram panchyats along with their concerned village heads (sarpanch) submitted a memorandum to the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) intended for Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, opposing the move on Thursday.

“In 2009, some villages were merged with 35 wards of the MCG boundaries. All these years, the MC collected house tax from residents. But for what? The residents do not have basic facilities yet and their conditions are pathetic. Those villages lack hospitals, college and schools. Now, the corporation is eyeing our villages. The truth is it wants 7,021 acres of land worth Rs 900 crore,” Ravinder, a former sarpanch of Palda village, said.

The panchayat members who were protesting under the banner of sangharsh samiti alleged that the corporation is only adopting such tactics to grab the property worth crores of rupees and crores of fix deposit (FDs) of the gram panchayats.

They further said none of the 38 panchayats have consented to be part of the civic body.

“A delegation of villagers will soon meet MLAs and MP of Gurugram area and seek their intervention of the MCG decision,” Ravinder added.

The villagers at the protest said, if our demand will not meet they would protest on a larger scales. They further asserted that the state government should do the work of empowering gram sabhas by repealing this proposal.

Biru, a former sarpanch of Baghera village, said that the people of 38 villages have made it clear that under any circumstances they will not allow their villages to be included in the corporation.

“The Chief Minister should cancel this proposal soon after taking the matter on propriety,” he said.

“We have seen that no development work could be done in those village previously incorporated in the corporation. The sarpanch has more power which is capable of development in the village. While a councillor of his ward need permission from the MCG to fulfil the development work at his ward which takes so much time to be completed,” he said.

–IANS

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