JAMMU: Forest Minister Lal Singh on Sunday sparked off yet another controversy by holding a meeting to review the progress of implementation of the decisions taken during the previous District Development Board meeting here.
The meeting was boycotted by the local MLA from Udhampur Pawan Gupta and MLA Chenani Dina Nath Bhagat as they claimed it was convened without following the right procedure and termed it ‘unlawful’.
The public representatives also accused the minister of organising the meeting in an undemocratic manner and by bypassing the institution of MLA and other stakeholders, considered crucial for the success of democracy at grass-roots level.
Taking strong note of the working style of the Forest Minister, both the public representatives claimed Lal Singh has degraded the institution of an MLA by not taking them into confidence ahead of the meeting. Even the Member Parliament was not taken into confidence ahead of scheduling the meeting. “He is behaving as an autocrat and is roaming in the constituency in a fleet of about 40 vehicles to register his presence” claimed independent MLA and former minister Pawan Gupta.
Raising question marks over the working of the Minister, the MLAs alleged that in the absence of release of funds no significant developmental work was carried out in the constituency on ground zero. “We fail to understand what sort of review meeting would have been chaired by the minister”, they added.
Though both the public representatives claimed they were informed about the meeting by the DDC on Saturday evening but sufficient time was not given to them.
“We were not given minutes of the previous Board meeting even though the same were lying with the chairman of the DDB for last two months”, alleged both the public representatives.
Pawan Gupta claimed , “We have also apprised the Chief Secretary and Commissioner Secretary Planning and Development Department about the manner in which the meeting was convened and shared our reservations with them”, he said adding that even the Chief secretary has endorsed our view point on the matter as it is mandatory to give at least one weeks’ notice to the public representatives before organising such meetings and the final schedule is fixed after obtaining their prior approval.
Before fixing of such meeting, Pawan said, Lal Singh should have discussed and taken into confidence all the MLAs and MP of the area well in advance while giving
ample time for preparation but he did not bother to utter even a single word with the public representatives in violation of proper protocol thereby degrading the institution of an MLA.
The Forest Minister has time and again tried to degrade the institution of the MLA, Pawan said and conveyed to Ch Lal Singh that an MLA is not subordinate to him and is not supposed to work as per his whims and fancies.
“I am astonished ; what is the purpose of fixing such an important meeting in haste only on Sunday when the public representatives are pre-occupied with their electors and what is being reviewed by the Chairman when no developmental work has been initiated in the district in absence of release of funds to the executing agencies,” he said.
Further, he said, most of the bureaucrats stayed away from the said meeting.
“Commissioner/ Secretaries, HoDs were not present in the meeting to apprise the public representatives about implementation of decisions and deliberations of the previous meetings,” he said.