Work for people, Kejriwal tells sarpanches at mass oath-taking ceremony in Ludhiana

Ludhiana, Nov 8 It is easy to become an MLA but difficult to become a sarpanch and all decisions should be taken in front of the entire village, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal told the newly-elected 10,031 sarpanches of 19 districts of Punjab who were administered the oath of office in mass by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann at a function in Ludhiana.

"People have expressed their trust in you. So work for the people and your village,” he said. “Punjab has to be made drug-free. Take strict steps to eliminate drug addiction from the villages.”

“You have to fulfil the responsibility given to you by the people of your village. It is a good thing that you have been elected as the sarpanch. Whatever happens on this earth, God does it. So if you have got a chance to serve your village, then God has chosen you, God wants to do good to your village through you,” said the former Delhi Chief Minister.

“All decisions should be taken in front of the entire village. The sarpanch should not take decisions alone, all the wrong decisions, all the dishonesty that happens, happens in a closed room,” Kejriwal said.

Giving a pep talk, he said “It is easy to become an MLA but it is difficult to win the sarpanch election. The people have expressed their trust in you. So work for the people and your village”.

Saying villages have to be made drug-free, Chief Minister Mann in his address said, “We have to make villages drug-free. Because the villagers know who sells drugs and who buys them. In many villages, the youth have formed clubs, which are working against drugs. Apart from this, villages also have to be made green.”

Quoting a recent report, he said it “shows that the water level of Punjab has started rising now. This is a good sign. Unity has to be maintained in the villages. As many as 45,000 youths have been given jobs. Electricity has been made free.”

Tens of thousands of people participated in the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected 10,031 sarpanches of 19 districts of Punjab.

There was a massive gathering at the function that the AAP government claimed aimed to strengthen democracy at the grassroots, as panchayats are known as the ‘pillars of democracy’.

The Chief Minister administered the oath of office to the newly-elected sarpanches.

In the recently-concluded polls, 13,147 sarpanches of gram panchayats, the village-level third tier of governance, have been elected in 23 districts, out of which the newly-elected 10,031 sarpanches of 19 districts were administered oath.

The oath taking ceremony of other elected sarpanches of remaining four districts -- Muktsar Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Barnala and Gurdaspur -- and of 81,808 newly-elected panches of 23 districts will be held after the by-elections of four Assembly constituencies -- Giddarbaha, Chabewal, Barnala and Dera Baba Nanak.

Source: IANS