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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cash, liquor flow free in UP panchayat polls by Virendra Nath Bhatt

Cash, liquor flow free in UP panchayat polls by Virendra Nath Bhatt

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published Published on Oct 11, 2010   modified Modified on Oct 11, 2010

This time in Uttar Pradesh, panchayat elections — the first phase starts Monday — are being fought with an intensity never seen before.

Eight persons have already died in poll-related violence over the past 15 days. All the trappings of a typical poll are there — hoardings; free flow of liquor, money and clothes for voters; and candidates moving about in SUVs.

“So much money and violence was seen neither in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls or 2007 Assembly elections,” said senior BJP leader H N Dikshit.

Officially, all parties have announced that they are not contesting the elections. But candidates have put up hoardings, claiming blessings of Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi or Mulayam Singh. Ministers, MPs and MLAs have fielded their relatives and are campaigning for them.

An official in the State Election Commission said: “Violence was there even during elections in 1995, 2000 and 2005, but that was only on the day of polling. This time it began right with the poll notification.”

The intense rivalry in these polls is being linked to MNREGA, the launch of which by the UPA in 2005 has led to a quantum jump in the flow of funds from the Centre to village panchayats. Although, technically, all decisions in MNREGA are taken by the gram sabha, in actual practice it is village pradhan and panchayat secretary who control its implementation.

Dinesh Mishra, an official in Maharajganj district, said, “During the days of JRY, the pradhans graduated from cycles to motorcycles. After the launch of MNREGA, they move in SUVs.”

Even before MNREGA, pradhans were involved in all welfare schemes and got their ‘cut’. But money in MNREGA comes daily and it is much more than they received in any other scheme.

Sources said in the current year, as much as Rs 9,000 crore is going to be spent in UP under MNREGA. According to the Panchayat Raj Department, the allocation to a big village with a population of 25,000 could be as high as Rs 3 crore in a year and Rs 15 to Rs 20 lakh for a small village.

In kshetra panchayats and district panchayats, however, it is political power at local level that has drawn relatives of ministers, MPs and MLAs like never before.


The Financial Express, 11 October, 2010, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/cash-liquor-flow-free-in-up-panchayat-polls/695507/


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