On October 24, Monday, Goa completed 60 years of Panchayati Raj in the State. The journey was tough but it signified maturity. The people of Goa, Daman and Diu back then were excited for the first elections as they were able to vote for the very first time. Rest of the country had already earned the right to vote in 1951-52 when Goa was still under the colonial rule of Portuguese. Goa earned the right to vote only after the State attained liberation. Surprisingly, this election was fought to run village panchayats and not to govern the State. This election was held on October 24, 1962. The people did participate in voting but the voting was not held in all the panchayats. The polls were held in 149 panchayats of which panch members were elected unopposed in 31 panchayats. This statistic only proves that people were not really all that interested in contesting elections that time.
Notably, the format of the elections then was quite different than now. Today each ward has a panch whereas that time there was no ward system. The population of the panchayat was a deciding factor for the number of panch members in each panchayat. The panchayats consisted of 5, 7 and 9 panch members depending on the population and no panch was a representative of a particular ward. If a panchayat consisted of 5 members then the 5 candidates with the most number of votes were declared as the winners, a system that was eventually changed.
This election was historic as it was the first of its kind to grant people their democratic rights; the right to elect the principal board that would govern the village. After this election, the polls to elect the State government were held on December 9, 1963. Some still think that the polls held to elect the State government was the first election held in Goa however that is not the truth. The polls held to elect panch members were the first and one seat each was reserved for women candidates. The system was changed in its entirety after the Central government in 1993 and Goa in 1994 amended and enacted the new Panchayati Raj Act.
The reform gave women candidates the right to one-third of reservations and reservations to those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This helped to boost the participation of women candidates in politics as well as people from the backward class. The panchayats attained more freedom. The country adopted a three-tier system while in Goa it consists of two-tier, a move that increased the importance of grassroots-level governing bodies. The panchayats also gained political reputation and importance as having more panchayats under one’s belt was considered a dominant claim to power at the State level. This made political parties in power adopt dirty politics to ascertain their power on the panchayats as well. The law has granted all the rights to panchayats however some loopholes have been exposed in recent years. The gram sabha is an important factor in the panchayat system. Although it does not have a direct impact in the operations of the panchayat, it can still act as a watch dog and keep an eye on the works being carried out by the panchas. However, some sabhas have become directionless. If a group wants to oppose a project or if an incident has taken place which has gone against someone's personal will, then people crowd at the gram sabhas oppose for the sake of opposing. Especially people who usually never bother to attend these meetings are the ones to hold sarpanch on the edge. The villagers do not show interest in constructive work which is a shame because only then the panchayat will be able to operate well. The gram sabhas otherwise will be raged only due to the debates and a solution on this is needed. People need to be reminded of their responsibilities. The government did grant women the right of reservation on the posts of sarpanch and deputy sarpanch however at many places male panch members intentionally cause problems by not seconding their claim to these posts. There have been incidents where the post of sarpanch has stayed vacant due to the same reasons. The frequently tabled no-confidence motions against sarpanchas are among the hot-topics. The tenure of a sarpanch is of five years but it’s rare that someone completes it. Internal politics or sly moves by political parties in the panchayats bring instability. In some panchayats it has become a tradition to equally share the tenure of the Sarpanch post which needs to be stopped. There is a need to strengthen the panchayats.