West Bengal government wants to hold panchayat polls in January end

KOLKATA: West Bengal government on Thursday urged the state election commission to hold the panchayat elections during the end of January 2013.

The state's chief secretary Samar Ghosh has written a letter to the state election commission requesting them to go for the polls during the end of next January. Meanwhile, the opposition CPIM met the governor M.K.Narayanan at Raj Bhavan during the day and lodged official complains against the ruling Trinamool Congress for taking away financial powers of sabhadhipatis of North 24-Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad.

The opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra said in a statement that the ruling Trinamool Congress had taken over forcibly 700 gram panchayats. "The ruling party has also forced 400 members belonging to 80 gram panchayats to defect opposition parties to join Trinamool Congress," Mishra said in his statement which had been handed over to the governor.

Mishra also accused Trinamool Congress of reducing the number of women seats in the three-tier panchayat system. "Reservation of seats for scheduled caste, schedules tribe and other backward classes have also been reduced significantly," Mishra alleged. He urged the governor to take special measures to hold a free and fair panchayat election next year.