Panchayat associations to organise bandh on March 15

Puducherry, Mar 2 (UNI) The Federation of Village Panchayat Presidents associations here would organise a 24-hour bandh here and Karaikal region of the union territory on March 15 to press their demands.

They were demanding the devolution of powers to the elected local body representatives among other things.

Talking to mediapersons here, Dy Convenor of federation Jaganathan said the decision to go ahead with the bandh, as announced earlier was taken at an emergency meeting of the federation here yesterday.

Mr Jaganathan said though the Government had issued three orders on January 18, it would provide powers only to the officials and not to the elected representatives and that they suspect that the Government was attempting to freez the village panchayats.

The administration had 'cheated' the elected local body representatives, he said adding that they were forced to organise the agitation.

Mr Jaganathan said the federation office bearers would meet all political party leaders on March 8 to seek their support to the bandh.

A five-day campaigning would be undertaken in Puducherry and Karaikal regions of the union territory from February 9 to create awareness of the cause of the bandh among people, he added.

The federation had already announced a series of agitations to press for the devolution of powers to them, including a fast at the Rajiv Gandhi memorial at Sriperambadhur on Feberuary 22, which was dropped, following a request from Lok Sabha member Prof M Ramadass of Pattali Makkal Katchi(PMK).

UNI