Rural development officers on strike, want Langah booked

vi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, December 19

The Punjab Rural Development Association today went on a strike, demanding that an FIR be registered against Dera Baba Nanak halqa in charge Sucha Singh Langah.

The latter had allegedly abused Gurdaspur District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO) Jagwinderjit Singh Sandhu a few days ago.

A meeting of the association was held at Mohali where an 11-member action committee was constituted. This committee will look into the modalities to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court for registering a case against the Akali leader.

Eighteen of the total 23 DDPOs and several block development and panchayat officers (BDPOs) attended the meeting chaired by association president Shivdev Singh Dhandiwal.

It was decided that all senior and middle-rung officers of the department would remain on strike at the state headquarters at Mohali while officers at the district headquarters would begin their stir tomorrow.

Langah had allegedly abused the DDPO when the latter refused to obey his “instructions” pertaining to the auction of panchayat land at Kalanaur.

“Langah is neither a minister nor an MLA. He is simply a halqa in charge, which is an unconstitutional post. Langah has no right to insult an officer. This is not the first time that he has abused an officer,” claimed a Gurdaspur Congress man. A senior department functionary said: “I do not understand why the three-member committee constituted by the Gurdaspur deputy commissioner to probe the charges against the Akali leader has not held a single meeting so far.”

Langah, at a press conference at Gurdaspur on Wednesday, had levelled serious charges against the DDPO. “The DDPO was involved in a robbery in Ludhiana in the mid-eighties,” he had alleged.

The DDPO had threatened to sue Langah for defamation.