Mukhiya fails to hoodwink villagers

DARBHANGA: In what seems to be an attempt to hoodwink the people, the mukhiya of Ujan panchayat, Ram Sharan Lal, against whom flood victims of Ujan village were agitating leading to police firing on August 16, said that he had not lifted any relief material from the Manigachhi block.
Interestingly, the mukhiya, who has gone underground along with his family members since the day of firing, issued a press release on Monday mentioning that he was innocent and had become a victim of a high-level conspiracy hatched by the candidates defeated in the last election for the post of mukhiya.
He vehemently denied lifting of any relief material and demanded a high-level inquiry into the episode. He also paid glowing tributes to his two co-villagers killed in the police firing and wished speedy recovery of the injured flood victims.
That the mukhiya tried to hoodwink became clear when Darbhanga SDO Naeem Akhtar and Benipur DSP Rajiv Ranjan, who visited the Ujan village on Monday to gauge the mood of the people, sealed 384 quintals of wheat meant for relief and brought from Manigachhi block, which was stored in a private house near the mukhiya''s residence.
For the first time, the villagers came to know that 384 quintals of wheat had come to their panchayat. In a tactical move, both the SDO and DSP reportedly asked the people to say their feelings before them in Panchayat Bhawan. It was for the first time that any official visited the village since police firing.
Villagers reportedly complained before both the officers that neither block nor district administration ever took note of the discontent and anger prevailing among the villagers against the mukhiya.
People showed the duplicate copies of complaints addressed to the DM and BDO against the mukhiya from time to time. Demanding bribe in allotment of Indira Awas, tampering the proceedings of Gram Sabha, violating the rules of scheme implementation as well as keeping the panchayat functioning opaque to the people were some of the many charges levelled against the mukhiya by the villagers. Both the officers assured swift action on their grievances.