Rajasthan Villagers Say After They Questioned Minister, Officials Tried to Cut Water, Electricity

New Delhi: Locals from a village in the Sumerpur assembly constituency in Rajasthan’s Pali district have alleged that MLA and cabinet Joraram Kumawat sent officials to their village on Sunday (July 13) to disconnect their water and electricity connections.

The locals have alleged that Kumawat took the action after people in his assembly constituency had questioned the minister about dirty roads during the former’s visit to the Panchayat Bhawan in Gurdai Sumerpur for the foundation stone and inauguration of several development projects, reported Indian Express.

As the public questioned Kumawat, who is the cabinet minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy, Gopalan and Devasthan departments, some of his supporters and local public representatives tried to intervene.

When they said that the minister had other engagements, it further enraged the locals and Kumawat left without giving an address.

“Sunday morning, teams were sent to cut water and electricity connections claiming that we had illegal connections. We have taken connections at home, how is it illegal? If you think it’s illegal, give us notice. We have had a water connection for five years,” advocate Kiran Kumar Meena, a local told the newspaper.

Meena added that he was the main target as he had the memorandum and was speaking before the minister.

In a video of the incident, a local is heard saying, “Yesterday, we village residents had kept our issues before Minister Joraram and today, he has sent a PHED team to cut connections and trouble us”.

“I am a common man … We have a dhani (hutment) of about 200 homes of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. When the honourable minister came yesterday, we wanted to tell him that the roof of our local school is leaking, that we don’t have a CC (cement concrete) road and wanted to give him a memorandum. However, the minister and his supporters did not take our memorandum and pushed us out, saying that he has another engagement,” said Meena.

The opposition Congress has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the incident, accusing the party's government in the state of failing to provide basic facilities to the public.

Responding to the accusations against the district administration, district Collector Laxmi Narain Mantri told The Indian Express that he would “talk to the honourable minister”, and added, “We are administrative officers; we do what is due to us.”

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