PANCHAYAT DISSOLUTION LETTER LEAKED, PUNJAB GOVT MIRED IN SOCIAL MEDIA BLAME GAME

Following the suspension of two senior IAS officers after the Punjab government rescinded its decision to dissolve 13,000 Gram Panchayats across the state, a file page containing the signatures of several ministers and bureaucrats surfaced online on Friday.

- TARUNI GANDHI 

Politics and blame games have since ensued as major players point fingers at each other over who gave orders for the dissolution of panchayats in Punjab. In addition, Opposition parties have been trying to nail the Aam Aadmi Party government over the issue ever since a signed copy of the letter surfaced online.

The suspension of both DK Tiwari, who was until yesterday the Financial Commissioner of Rural Development and Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Director for Rural Development, has created a stir within the state government. The copy has the signatures of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Rural Development Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, alongside those of two other bureaucrats. The two IAS officers were suspended on Thursday following the Punjab government's U-turn in the state High Court over the early dissolution of panchayats across Punjab.