The incident of fighting which took place during gram sabha of Avedem-Cotombi Panchayat in Quepem is shameful. More importantly, it challenges the core concept of Panchayati Raj. Gram sabhas are meant to address issues faced by the village and villagers but in Avedem-Cotombi, a verbal fight between a villager and the husband of the deputy sarpanch turned into a physical one. This is infuriating as the incident took the panchayat raj system for granted.
While the meeting was underway which was presided over by the sarpanch, a villager from ward 5 raised an issue over the condition of the roads in his ward. He demanded that the sarpanch inspect the road and claimed that motorists are inconvenienced. Ward 5 panch who also is the deputy sarpanch of the village was absent for the meeting but her husband was present during the meeting. The husband told the sarpanch to look into his own ward and to not be bothered about ward no 5. What started as a verbal fight soon turned into a physical fight with the deputy sarpanch’s husband getting beaten up. The matter is now with the BDO and due action will be taken.
However, this incident has raised some serious questions. What was the need for the deputy sarpanch’s husband to get involved in the discussion? He had no rights whatsoever to do so. Of course, as a member of the gram sabha he has all the right to speak, but he had no right to speak on his wife’s behalf. If the person who raised the issue of the condition of the road was misleading people, then the deputy sarpanch’s husband could have brought that to the notice of the meeting. But instead, he was aggressively persistent on the sarpanch minding his own ward and not looking into the matter of the ward of his wife. However, this demand itself was wrong as the sarpanch belonged to the entire village. He/she has to look into the problems of the whole village panchayat.
Although this is just one incident in Avedem, there have been incidents in other panchayats of Goa where the husbands were meddling or looking after the panchayat work on behalf of their wives. Women received one-third reservation for the first time, when Panchayati Raj Act came into existence in 1994. Most of the women were new to politics and so, the number of the women candidates was low. Some had to enter the politics against their desire just because there was a political reservation for them. Many women candidates even held the posts of sarpanch and deputy sarpanch but due to lack of experience, they could not work at their optimum capacity. This led to many husbands taking charge of their wife’s posts and doing the work on their own. Naturally, such practices were objected to in the gram sabhas and eventually the incidents dropped down.
Women candidates single handedly led panchayats and some of them even made it to the Assembly after starting their political careers from panchayat. Incidents similar to what happened in Avedem are still happening to certain extent in some parts of the State. This should not happen. The chaos happening in the gram sabhas is not new to the State. Some even bring up issues for discussion which are not in any way related to the gram sabha and that is what causes confusion. Some topics are brought in purely out of the personal grudges while some attend the meetings only to oppose certain projects.
A few years back gram sabhas lacked good attendance and the same people would be seen attending the meetings. Things aren’t very different today. Gram sabhas hold a very significant part in the Panchayati Raj system as they act as watchdogs on the panch members. If the panch members are doing something unwanted then people can successfully stop them through gram sabhas. Villagers can also build pressure on the elected panch members. Resolutions and decisions taken in the gram sabha are binding on the panch members. This shows how crucial is the role of gram sabha meetings in the panchayat system. Of course, the resolutions and the decisions should be taken in accordance with the law. Sometimes topics which are out of the panchayat’s jurisdiction are given preference in the gram sabha which leads to arguments. The government should bring awareness among people to avoid such incidents from happening.
