Panchayati Raj: Nothing to celebrate

Panchayati Raj: Nothing to celebrate Soter D’Souza The Golden Jubilee celebrations of Panchayati Raj by the Goa government was nothing but a mockery of the Goan people, as they have been denied their constitutional rights and powers to self-govern their villages (since the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional amendment) for the last 20 years. This is why the State government didn’t have the courage to convene special gram sabha meetings to commemorate this event ~ this historical event was not about a Goan people’s celebration, but more of a celebration of the 50 years of village plunder by politicians and bureaucrats. The BJP government in Goa seems to believe that it is the legislature, judiciary, executive and panchayat, all rolled into one. It appears terribly intolerant to decentralisation of powers and finances. For the jubilee celebrations of Panchayati Raj in Goa, the BJP government thought it appropriate to further destroy the economic sustainability of the village panchayats by reducing house tax to a nominal rupee one ~ thereby eliminating a major source of revenue for developing villages and making panchayats even more dependent on State dole. No convincing reasons justifying such a step have been disclosed to the public. In 2001, the then BJP government had also dealt a similar blow to the financial security of several village panchayats across Goa by withdrawing their powers to collect taxes from industrial areas. The compensation for such losses with Government grants, does in no way promote self-governance in villages. In the golden jubilee year of Panchayati Raj in Goa, the State Government is grossly deficient in fulfilling its constitutional duties spelt out under Part IX of the Constitution of India. The report of the Second State Finance Commission for 2007-2012 was not approved and the Third State Finance Commission for 2012 -2017 has still not been constituted. So also, it has failed to ensure that the State laws are made consistent with the 73rd Constitutional amendment as required under Article 243-N of the Constitution. The amendments to the election laws for panchayats to curb serious electoral abuses like those during the recently concluded panchayat polls are yet to be undertaken. There are no ‘district development plans’ put in place as required under Article 243ZD of the Constitution, so that the development in villages can continue to be dictated through the Goa’s Town & Country Planning Department. If anything calls for celebration, it is the recent Supreme Court’s landmark judgment upholding the constitutional authority of the village panchayats in village development. The judgment in reference to the 73rd Constitutional amendment categorically states that, “Parliament has ensured that the panchayats would no longer perform the role of simply executing the programmes and policies evolved by the political executive of the State.” This came about after the Calangute village panchayat refused to succumb to the diktats of a bureaucrat, and challenged the order in the appropriate courts. The State Government has maintained a stoic silence on this judgement probably in the hope that this mind of the Apex Court should not percolate down to the grass-roots. The first 30 years of Panchayati Raj in Goa were more about maintenance works, collection of some taxes, and dispersal of government schemes in villages. The enactment of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act in 1994, which was hesitantly enacted by the State to incorporate the objectives, substance and directives of the 73rd Constitutional amendment, had not really caught the attention of the public eye. This was primarily because the State Government never ever conducted a public campaign to popularize this historical constitutional amendment which is about ‘power to the people’. Till this day, it has largely been the civil society groups that have been spreading information at the grass-roots despite obstacles often put up by local MLAs. The State government agencies, on the other hand, have restricted themselves to pampering the elected representatives in a bid to ensure that the State bureaucratic monopoly is maintained in village administration. This is what foundational training programmes on Panchayati Raj for elected representatives, delivered by none other than bureaucrats, actually propagate. It was only around 2005 that some gram sabhas across Goa showed signs of waking up and taking interest in the affairs of local governance, due to the efforts of the Church and some civil society groups. This momentum climaxed in 2007 because of the anger against the Regional Plan 2011. But deficiencies in the laws, collusion of the State Executive machinery with various vested interests and conflicting laws have succeeded in scuttling any attempts for peoples’ participation in village governance. One such instance is the hurried enactment of the ‘Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations’ in 2010, as an antidote to the growing gram sabha resistance against the destruction of villages by real estate developers. While construction projects directly impacts life in the village, according to the new building regulations, the application and plans for construction are first circulated for clearance from various government agencies while keeping the village panchayat in the dark. It is only after all the agencies have granted their ‘no objection’ that the application finally arrives at the village panchayat for what is more like a formality of licensing. The Government has deliberately not deputed any technical experts to the panchayats so that any decision by the Panchayats to reject licenses for construction can get struck down by some bureaucrat on the frivolous ground that the panchayat is not technically competent to question construction plans. Panchayati Raj in Goa, as it stands today, is nothing short of the continuing British imperialism through Goa’s politicians and bureaucrats. Even the Portuguese later recognised the role of traditional self-governments like the communidades in Goa and gave them their due space in community administration. Without any attempts to devolve the constitutional powers and finances to the people in villages, the jubilee celebration of Panchayati Raj in Goa is meaningless. The diminishing of MLA-rule in villages and the emergence of the local people’s rule is what real Panchayati Raj is all about. (The writer is Director, Centre for Panchayati Raj-Peaceful Society, Madkai) Published on 30/10/2012 http://www.heraldgoa.in/newscategory/Opinions/14