Bhubaneswar: The opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday decried the enhanced financial powers to Block Development Officers (BDOs) as an assault on democracy and the three-tier Panchayati Raj system in the state.
This came a day after the state Cabinet approved the amendments in the Odisha Panchayat Samiti Accounting Procedure Rules, 2002, curtailing the powers of the elected representatives of the panchayat samitis, most of which are controlled by the opposition BJD.
“This BJP government wants to rule the state by fear. Since the elected block chairpersons are from the BJD, it has now handed over all powers to BDOs to fulfil its political and financial greed,” senior BJD leader Arun Sahoo told a presser.
He alleged that this is another attempt by the ruling party to hijack the Panchayati Raj institutions in the state and weaken the system. “Under Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha, the works were approved at Gram Sabhas, Panchayat Samitis, and Zilla Parishad level and later accepted by the government. The present government did away with this practice and introduced ‘Bikashita Gaon, Bikashita Odisha’ scheme, giving the approval power to the collectors, thereby reducing the role of the elected representatives,” he said.
Under the new provision, Sahoo said, countersignature of the chairpersons of the block-level local bodies will no longer be required for work approval ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. “Any assault on democratic structure of a country has led to a revolt. It was seen in the case of Pakistan, Srilanka, Bangladesh and now, Nepal. France is also in turmoil,” he said.
The MLA then went on to warn of a massive statewide agitation if the Mohan Majhi government fails to roll back the decision to enhance the financial powers of officers for both technical sanction and administrative approval of developmental works at the panchayat samiti level.