Demoralising Gram Sabhas?

Article published in Herald 4/4/2013 Demoralising Gram Sabhas? Soter D’Souza The recent legal opinion issued by the Chief Town Planner (CTP) to the Director of Panchayats (DoP) interpreting whether the gram sabha has the power to dictate the revocation of construction permissions, has aroused much curiosity about the hidden intent behind such a move. What is even more comical is the fact that the Director of Panchayats forwarded the note from the TCP to the village panchayats without independently cross-checking the veracity of this legal conclusion. Here lies the root of all problems that village panchayats face. The officers of the DoP are from among those initiated in the revenue department cadre and carry along with them their baggage of a colonial mentality and the ‘yes sir’ attitude to please their bosses in government. The devolution of powers to the people is just not acceptable in their ‘babudom’ politics. The panchayati raj system in Goa is like an orphaned child, confused as to what is its place in the democratic set-up and who are its guardians. It is observed that no sooner the gram sabhas attempt to assert their powers, there is nervousness amongst the elected representatives in panchayats, who are more often than not in league with the local politician and government bureaucrats to prevent any controls slipping into the hands of the people. Such legal notes being now circulated no sooner the gram sabhas become proactive, is nothing new. During the height of the anti-mega housing campaign in villages then, a similar note dated March 17, 2008 prepared by a prominent constitutional expert that rubbished the authority of the gram sabhas to decide on issues of housing construction in the village, was presented to the government by an association of real estate developers. This was followed by the publication of an opinion ‘Powers of the gram sabha’ which summed up that the regulation of land use and planning is not within the purview of the panchayats and the gram sabhas. This was followed by another report in another local daily on May 29, 2008 under the caption ‘Chiefs have powers to overrule gram sabha resolutions: official.’ And how can one forget the most bizarre and vague definition of the TCP in November 2008, on what constitutes a mega project in a village? The soundness of the so-claimed legal interpretations can now be ascertained in light of the recent Supreme Court judgement of July 2012, upholding the rights of the Calangute panchayat in safeguarding the interests of the gram sabha. A careful reading of this latest note from the CTP would prompt a logical question as to whether there was a need for such an opinion to be sought and circulated, if the gram sabha was so powerless on deciding about the type of construction projects in the village? For argument sake, even if gram sabhas did direct the TCP to withdraw the construction permissions, such directions have no legal validity because the TCP is not authorised to issue construction permissions in villages and ought to have been ignored. The TCP department is governed by an antiquated Town and Country Planning Act where there is hardly any cognizance about the role of the ‘gram sabha’ or ‘local body’ in the planning process. The senior town planner is only accorded the status of a technical officer for the village panchayats in the Panchayat Building Rules, and is restricted to the issuing of a no objection certificate to the village panchayat for processing the applications for grant of construction permissions in the village from the planning point of view. Ultimately, it is the village panchayat body that is authorised to issue the construction permissions under Section 66 of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1994. But, is it true that the TCP does not have the powers to revoke its own NOC to the project if its conditions as mentioned in the NOC are not adhered to by the applicant during the execution of the work? Does the TCP not have a duty under the TCP Act to swing into action if the gram sabha brings to its notice any violations from the planning point of view? If at all the TCP wanted to seek a legal opinion on how to tackle resolutions of gram sabhas, it should have done so to explore whether its own planning processes are in consonance with the seventy-third and seventy-fourth constitutional amendments. Interpreting selected sections of the Panchayat Raj Act to tame the gram sabhas is definitely an intrusion by the TCP into the affairs of the local bodies. It becomes hard to believe that this move of the CTP does not have other deeper undeclared motives. The gram sabha members are not legal persons and neither is the village panchayat secretary deputed by the government, who should have been more like the legislature secretary to advise the chairperson and note the minutes of the meetings in a legally acceptable manner. Therefore, subjecting the terminology used in gram sabha resolutions to legal scrutiny and not the intention, is nothing but mischievous. Would it be fair to subject the decision of Parliament to legal scrutiny without providing competent experts to draft its resolutions? Was this exercise of seeking a legal opinion actually meant to check out the legal grounds, or was it an exercise to portray the gram sabhas as being totally incompetent, irrational and irresponsible and create grounds for by-passing them in the preparation of the Regional Plan 2021? Taking advantage of this latest spat between the gram sabhas and the TCP, the opportunistic forces have once again descended to fish in troubled waters and distract the people from the real core problems in decentralised planning. These social entrepreneurs are extremely comfortable debating issues like the re-opening of ODPs without tackling issues of built-up FAR and parking, continuing blurred lines between settlement and commercial zoning, mooting of 20% extra FAR for hotels to 'boost' tourism revenues and to tendering for an amphitheatre on an Eco-1 zone. No sooner attempts are made to focus on the obsolete TCP Act, the ridiculous planning structures and the unfettered powers of the CTP, there seems to be some sort of nervousness among these activists and attempts are made to skirt the issue. For the moment, it appears that those with conflict of interests have appropriated the right to speak on behalf of the gram sabhas and one can hardly expect a prudent and discerning response from these intruders in resolving the problems of the village people. What the gram sabhas require most at present, is disciplined and rational thinking with more of community interests rather than personal or NGO interests, and some civility in the conduct of its affairs. http://www.heraldgoa.in/newscategory/Opinions/14