The arrest of Sancoale Sarpanch for allegedly demanding a bribe, is a symptom of the sordid underbelly of local governments in Goa. The accused was apprehended when a courageous businessman, roped in the ACB of the Vigilance department to nab him, when most others would quietly pay the bribe and get the occupancy certificate for a house to avoid further victimisation. The accused has served as sarpanch earlier and for the rest of the time has been a defacto sarpanch under the tutelage of various MLAs and has virtually had a free run all these years in Sancoale. But the law seems to have finally caught up with him, when he was caught red handed having allegedly accepted the bribe.
It is amazing that in India, and for that matter in Goa, the law is often not used to regulate public behavior, but is a tool of corruption. Earlier, bribes were demanded for “legalising” illegalities. However in recent decades, citizens are forced to pay bribes even if they have fulfilled all stipulated norms for construction or setting up of a business, etc. In other words one has to pay a bribe even if one follows the law.
But the question is after having caught the sarpanch red handed accepting a bribe, will the law be allowed to take its course and will the case be taken to its logical conclusion or will politics allow him to get away?
There are cases where panchayats in Goa are non corrupt and work for the benefit of the village. A businessman from outside the state who set up a resort in Candolim in the late 80s was utterly surprised when the then long serving sarpanch of Candolim, who later became the Speaker of Goa Assembly, did not accept a single rupee as bribe, for construction of the resort.
Many panchayats are guilty of colluding with illegalities and often harassing ordinary citizens and builders, even if they have gone by the rule book. Panchayats are intended to create model village communities, free of corruption and should act as an example to the state and central tier are far as ‘corruption free governance’ is concerned. Panchayats have been retained as ‘non political’ bodies and should therefore be free from party politics. Politics divides the village on party lines and hence to prevent the division of the village community in tune with Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a cohesive village community, party politics has been kept out of panchayats in India, at least formally.
Panchayats have to draw up an inventory of village / human resources, make a perspective 20 year plan for the village and work for the welfare of each member of the village community. However, not a single village panchayat in Goa –for various reasons such as non devolution of powers by state government, lack of finances, party politics and interference by local MLA, factionalism and corruption– is able to transform itself into a model panchayat. For that matter, there are not even 50 model panchayats in the entire country.
On the corruption front we have to examine whether only the elected representatives are corrupt? Or whether people too are responsible for corruption since they expect ‘something’ from their MLAs/representatives. The ‘clean’ sarpanch, who got elected as MLA from Calangute, did not get re-elected even though he was clean. Predominant reason –he gave just one job to a person from that constituency, in his five year tenure.
The best panacea to root out corruption is eternally vigilant citizens who neither demand nor accept favours from their elected representatives. The quality of democracy in a country is only as good as its citizens. Given camera, audio and video recording facilities on cellphones, citizens should, shed their complacency and report corruption at every level, as done by the Sancoale citizen, who showed exemplary courage, braved prospective political backlash, refused to be cowed down and reported the bribe demand.
