Bizarre panchayat announcement leaves villagers red-faced in MP's Shahdol district

An unusual announcement asking farmers to take care of their cattle, otherwise, they will be slapped with a fine of Rs 500 and also beaten up with shoes five times, has left the villagers red-faced.

Shahdol: People at a village in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh are at wit's end over the unusual decree or announcement asking them to take care of their cattle. Otherwise, a monetary fine of Rs 500 will be slapped on defaulters as well as they will be hit with shoes five times. The villagers were saying that they didn't have objections to the penal punishment. But, they were raising objections over the Munadi, a person, who was making the announcement by beating a drum, stating that those found guilty will be beaten up with shoes five times. A video of the Munadi (announcement) has gone viral on social media, leaving the villagers red-faced.

A villager said that he has attained the age of 47 years and he has a son whose age is 15 years. "In the past several years, I saw several people elected to the post of sarpanch, but they never issued orders for making such announcements. When I heard the announcement, it was very humiliating. It just was just like hitting below the belt. This was not fair on the part of the village panchayat office-bearers to instruct Munadi man to make such denigrating announcement."

Another villager said, "The Munadi man was given the responsibility to make the announcement by the Sarpanch and Secretary of the panchayat. We are not finding fault in this. But, why this humiliating order? It is totally disrespectful." The incident was related to Nagnaudi village panchayat under the Jaisinghnagar tahsil in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh. In the viral video, the announcer was heard saying that everybody should take care of their cattle. Otherwise Rs 500 fine will be imposed on the defaulter and he will be beaten with shoes five times. For this, the sarpanch and secretary should be held responsible.

Jaisinghnagar SDM Bhagirathi Lahere says, "I have not received the written complaint in this regard. Besides, the video clippings were also not examined or scanned. We have not received video clippings also. Suitable action will be taken after scanning the video clips."