The panchayat delimitation process that has been simmering for a while, could very likely turn into a major controversy. Earlier it was the panchas and panchayati raj proponents that had been finding fault with the village ward delimitation process, but now it is the Panchayat Minister who has flagged discrepancies in the process. This is a strong indication that there is something very wrong with the exercise that has been carried out. But, as the minister has said, with little time to revise the ward delimitations, the panchayat elections due in June this year may even be held based on the wards as delimited in the previous election. That may satisfy those that have been complaining about the process, but is that a solution?
Questions should be asked as to how the process went so wrong that the elections to the village bodies may have to be held based on the wards of five years ago. What is interesting here is that the delimitation process has been carried out by the State Election Commission and not the Panchayat Department, primarily to avoid any political influence in the process. So what went wrong and how did it happen? Besides, the disagreement with the delimitation process was already visible in February this year, when there had been allegations that there were ulterior motives in the ward marking process as it was aimed at weakening the vote base of certain panchas and sarpanchas by selectively removing or adding voters to specific wards. Shouldn’t it have been corrected?
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It is clear that the people are not happy with the delimitation exercise conducted by the State Election Commission as there have been 913 objections and suggestions received. Specific issues that the panchas have brought up are that the delimitation exercise had disrupted geographical boundaries and will create non-uniform ward sizes in a panchayat, with some wards having a very small number of voters and others a much larger electorate. It was also highlighted that in some cases, family members living in one house were placed in two different wards. How this occurred has to be determined, but as has been pointed by panchas, this is a mess that needs to be corrected, and very importantly some accountability established.
In February, when the first rumblings of disagreement on the ward delimitation were heard, Herald had cautioned on this, recalling that in the elections to the municipal councils held last year, the High Court of Bombay at Goa had quashed and set aside the reservations to five municipal councils and directed that the reservations of the wards be notified again after corrections. Goa, Herald had stressed, should avoid such a situation with the panchayat polls, where the delimitation process is taken to the courts for a decision. The officials delegated with the responsibility of conducting the process should have been more cautious and made every attempt to avoid any controversy. Why did just the opposite happen in this instance?
We appear to have learnt nothing from the experience of the past, for if the outcome of the municipal ward reservation had been a lesson, the current panchayat ward delimitation would be free from errors. However, can the State Election Commission justify the uneven ward sizes? They have to be given the opportunity to present their side too, and if they can give valid reasons for this, it may just have to be accepted, but they have to be justifiable explanations. That said, the panchayats are the first tier of government at the very grassroots of the system and unless these bodies are devolved the powers as envisaged in the Act, the aims of Panchayati Raj will never be met.
