Mandleshwar (Madhya Pradesh): All work at Jalud village panchayat, under Maheshwar district panchayat, has come to a standstill for the past one and half months as the previous panchayat secretary has not handed over charge to the new one.
Locals are now planning to lodge a PIL in local court and also complain to the divisional commissioner in Indore.
As per reports, secretary Kalu Singh Patel and assistant secretary do not come to the office, which remains closed, hampering all work and frustrating the villagers.
Villagers had lodged a complaint along with evidence against secretary Patel and on April 16 CEO Singh removed Patel and sent him back to Batholi panchayat.
Additionally, Parmanand Pandey, secretary of a nearby panchayat, was given additional charge of Jalud. Also, a five-member team was formed to look into complaints against Patel.
At that time villagers had expressed happiness over Pandey’s appointment and also praised CEO Singh and collector Bhavya Mittal.
However, the happiness of villagers was short-lived as Pandey never came to Jalud panchayat and Patel never handed over the charge.
Patel had been managing both Jalud and Batholi panchayats which led to operational inefficiencies due to distance of 30 km between the panchayats. Villagers from Batholi had also accused Patel of corruption but no action was taken against Patel even after an investigation.
