The gram sabha is the fulcrum of the Panchayati Raj and village development. People use this forum to discuss local governance and development, and make need- based plans for the village.
The Panchayat implements development programs under the overarching mandate, supervision and monitoring of the gram sabha. All decisions of the Panchayat are taken through the gram sabha and no decision is official and valid without its consent.
The gram sabha keeps an eye on elected representatives and holds them responsible to the people who elected them. It performs regular audits on
the Panchayat’s financial reports to ensure transparency and correctness. It also develops strategies for village development.
Thus, we see that the gram sabhas are responsible for upholding the ethos of grassroots democracy in the country. But a recent violent incident at Anjuna gram sabha has raised serious concerns regarding the respect for our democratic institutions.
The social ethos of Anjuna village has gone from bad to worse with drugs and loud music. However, tensions flared on Sunday when the gram sabha took a violent turn where a doctor, advocating for a resolution against mega events in the village, was allegedly assaulted and abused by ‘village goons’ that too in the presence of the men-in-uniform and the panchayat members.
The gram sabha took an ugly turn when a Resolution against Sunburn & Mega Event Festivals submitted by Jenny Crasto came up for discussion and voter from Anjuna Dr Inacio Fernandes stood up to speak.
Hardly had he begun, when one Gajanan Tilve, alleged to have connections with the local ruling dispensation, marched from outside and started slapping Dr Inacio on the head before being stopped by a lady named Ana Fernandes, who is also a social activist.
As Dr Inacio fell, Fernandes stood her ground and ultimately the police intervened and kept the protagonists of loud music at bay. After loud accusations and counter accusations, Anjuna sarpanch called off the gram sabha.
Dr Inacio is a very active anti-noise pollution activist, fighting constantly and diligently against various commercial units allegedly indulging in blatant sound pollution. It’s been proven so along with observations from the Court that this has been happening with the connivance of local police and the authorities.
His sole motive was to raise these issues and asked the basic fundamental question as to why many of these units that were red flagged for continuously violating noise pollution provisions, were allowed to function without being shut down as the court ordered. Of course people intervened and stopped it, however there was a counter allegation by Tilve that he actually reacted to Dr Inacio’s first action of roughing him up. According to him, this was also done because Dr Inacio apparently goes to different bars and restaurants even at 7 pm and shuts down these units by force, which adversely affects their business. He felt that this is being done essentially to give Dr Inacio a lesson for hurting people's businesses.
The larger issue here is that Dr Inacio was in a supposedly secured environment called the gram sabha, which is supposed to raise people's issues. It is not a mere assembly of people. It’s a place where people have a right to deliberate and look at issues and also watch the functioning of the panchayat. Now it seems that there is a disturbing trend of using violent means to silence voices which take up people’s issues.
The Anjuna gram sabha incident is not the first-of-its-kind. We have witnessed this trend in many more villages like in Taleigao, Candolim and other places. If the gram sabha cannot be a safe place for people’s discussion and to raise their voices, then ultimately the grassroots democracy gets undermined and crushed ruthlessly in a very shameful manner.
Reacting to what Tilve said in his defence, Ana Fernandes said, “Tilve said he was assaulted before the gram sabha commenced. But when we entered the panchayat hall, he was not there. If, according to him, he was assaulted before the meeting started, then he should have been sitting inside. Why was he standing outside? There was ample space inside the gram panchayat, if he was already present for the meeting, then he should have been inside,” Fernandes said.
When asked about Tilve’s allegations that Dr Inacio is an extortionist and he goes to bars, restaurants and video records the parties going on and tries to shut them down even as early as 7 pm, Fernandes rejected the charges with an emphatic “no”.
“I am a quiet person. I don’t want disturbance. We have been telling these restaurant owners very politely that we don’t want any noise. Reduce the noise levels as cited in the law. We don’t have any problem with tourists. We are not against tourism as it is providing a livelihood to many of us. Also, we did not take any money from anyone. If Tilve has any proof, he should show it,” Fernandes said.
The larger issue that we have here is the fact that this seems to be some kind of a trend. This is not an isolated incident where people wanting to raise issues are either roughed up or stopped or whatever be the case. Whether Dr Inacio had abused Tilve before or not and what happened later, let the law take its own course and decide. But the fact that Dr Inacio was roughed up is completely clear as far as video evidence is concerned. But anyway, let investigations happen. Cases have been filed. But the larger issue is of violence in gram sabhas.
Reacting to this remark, Cecille Rodrigues, political activist from Taleigao said, “I think this has been a constant thing that’s been happening in every Gram sabha. The main thing is what the people’s issues are that we see. Especially if I take an example of our Taleigao village, our fields are almost destroyed. Every time somewhere or the other, there’s a hill cutting happening or there’s a new construction occurring. Recently we passed a resolution to revoke construction licenses given by the panchayat to build structures in the middle of the field where there is no road access.”
“So when these types of things happen, we inform the panchayat in advance so when they get to know they know that we’re going to raise certain issues like this and they come with a force full of people who don’t know head or tail of what is happening in the village. I don’t know whether they’re getting paid for it or not, because they want to show that the majority is with the panchayat or just hush us down, which has happened to me in the previous gram sabha when I was raising critical issues,” Rodrigues said.
She said that there have been altercations in Taleigao gram sabha where the members have been pushed and attacked like in the Anjuna case. The Anjuna case got recorded in the phone cameras that is why it went viral. But during the Taleigao gram sabha, the panchayat members weren’t recording the proceedings, the villagers were recording it.
“But this is a ridiculous thing that is happening in all our Panchayats and gram sabhas because they want illegal activities to take place as they want to make money. Now it should be found out whether there is a MLA involved or a minister involved who’s getting these things. They don’t want citizens who come to gram sabha, raise these issues because we are talking for the
betterment and the future of the
villages,” she said.
But if the common man wants his rights to be protected, then how do these people who rough you up or create problems, manage to do it, especially if the villagers are united in favour of protecting their village?
“See, another thing is that we don’t have a lot of citizens coming forward for gram sabhas. Now if you see, we have 30,000 voters in our constituency and out of that say around 15,000 are panchayat people. How many people really turn up, how many people are residents of the village, who actually should come forward and participate,” Rodrigues said.
“We are inviting doctors, engineers and such educated people because we have seen even how a poor person is thrashed. We have to stand by them. You won’t believe it. People feel scared coming to a gram sabha,” she added.
It is very sad to hear that people are scared to go to gram sabhas. Then why are we talking about the 73rd Amendment and grassroots democracy?
Roshan Luke Mathias, Director, Mog Foundation said that the village panchayat is not something that the State government formed or it was people’s decision that it should be formed. This is the very basis of the Constitution of India which actually states that panchayat is the local self-government.
“The three terms - ‘local’, ‘self' and ‘government’ are very heavy, which the Constitution upholds for usand under that there are several provisions that have spelt the rights and duties of the panchayat. Now what happens is whether the question of local self and government is there in this panchayat is a huge question,” Mathais said.
According to him, today the Goans are not able to sustain themselves in the boundaries of what was given to him by his ancestors, simply because the number of family members have increased, children have got married, in-laws have to be accommodated. So the families have to expand.
“What the panchayat does, even though they can give legal permissions, they will say it is not possible and make it difficult. Reasons being two - one is you put the money on the table and you’ll get the legal permission. Second, you do it illegally because anytime there is something wrong, your mouth should be shut,” Mathais said.
Now these people, out of helplessness, have to do this because there is no other choice, the Director of Mog Foundation said, adding, “Do you think these people will come to a gram sabha and voice their concerns on anything against the village? They would rather suffer and die in the four walls of their house rather than coming.”
“This is happening not just at the panchayat level. Today when you see local self-government means it should be our people, our ward members. Today all ward members are backed by the political parties. Why is it that today a candidate aspiring to become a MLA, is spending Rs 20 lakh on electioneering, which is the same amount being spent by each ward member is spending the same amount in his or her ward for panchayat elections?” he questioned.
This is a very bad ecosystem, which all of us unfortunately are aware of. The point here is the gram sabha is a bigger universe than the panchayat. It is part of a planet within the gram sabha universe. So the point here is that, why can’t the broader universe control a rogue planet?
“So one reason is that, as I just said, you are told to shut up. That’s because of the so-called illegalities you have done. The second thing is, when you say that the gram sabha is supposed to supervise the gram panchayat, which comprises the elected members along with the Panchayat Secretary, who are placed by the government in the panchayat. He’s the only outsider actually,” he said.
“Now what happens is, the gram sabha as per the Goa Panchayati Raj Act and Rules, Section 5, gram sabha is supposed to constitute, which means it is mandated that every gram sabha shall constitute two supervisory committees. These committees, as per that law, are supposed to overlook the works of the panchayat and produce a report before the gram sabha as an update of the works that were taken up by the panchayat,” Mathais said. “Right now I’m happy to say that in the entire Goa, no panchayat has got a supervisory committee, except Candolim, and that’s because I fought for it. What happened was when we constituted the supervisory committee, all the 11 ward members were part of the supervisory committee, which I objected to. How can you supervise yourself? It is against natural justice or against the law of the land,” he said.
“I was then asked to show where it is written that the members can’t be part of the supervisory committee. I am sorry to say that I failed that day because the law did not back me up. So nowhere in the Panchayati Raj Act is any composition of the supervisory committee supposed to be done by the State government through rules,” he said.
“Now, when I went to the Director of Panchayats and placed a letter before her. She was surprised that we have something called a Supervisory Committee. Then I said if there is nothing known, at least let’s work towards it, because this keeps the panchayat under control. We do not want to abuse or do policing. But since there is a law, there has to be a balance,” Mathais said.
“Also you know, it cannot be arbitrary or unreasonable. So this is the situation,” he said.
When asked about how a gram sabha actually supervises when the committee is not there, he said, “This committee has to actually form a report before the next gram sabha, giving an update to the people when the members come for the meeting. They’re supposed to update about what were the issues that were discussed in the gram sabha, where have we reached on that issue, what are the works that have been taken up by the panchayat, what is the quality of works - everything has to be revealed,” he said.
But this doesn’t happen at the Supervisory Committee meeting. All that happens is they discuss new issues - which roads have to be built, are there any resolutions that need to be discussed, etc.
The point is that this is an existing situation. But do we have a solution in mind in the sense that right now? Do we have any mechanism where we remove fear from the minds of people? At the end of the day, if going to panchayat becomes so fearsome, then there’s nothing we can do. So in that sense, what can we do to ensure that the gram sabhas become a safe place for people to go and actually raise their voice?
Responding to the question, Cecil Rodrigues said, “I think everyone has seen what happened in our Taleigao Panchayat elections. That’s the whole thing, where the solution is the panchayat members should change. The same people are there, the same party people are there and we saw our Panjim MLA openly campaigning for the Taleigao panchayat elections. So they were all his people and he was so confident of their victory. Majority of them were elected by the people. Three nominations were rejected and my proposer went missing.”
She said that the solution is that people should vote for change. But they don’t know their power. It has to work in the majority.
“But in today’s time, everyone has done some or the other illegal activity. So for whatever reason if they don’t win, they come down, breaking their houses. In certain places, the villages are being demolished for reasons known only to God. But in our village, that’s the situation and every time it is a battle for survival over there,” she said.