The Panchayat Raj System laid a great stress on the gram sabhas where elected representatives could be held to task by the members for inaction. Unfortunately, recent times have seen the entire village Gram Sabhas being hijacked by a few people having their own agenda and the Sarpanch unable to manage the proceedings leading to utter chaos like a quarterly bazaar without any useful business being conducted.
In today’s time, where corruption is the name of the game, the village Panchayat members just see the Gram Sabhas as a burden and just manage to pass the time without much discussion or any useful action. Village secretaries who are supposed to guide and plan the proceedings of the meeting come unprepared and unable to answer queries.
Often the meeting strays away from the planned agenda due to inexperience of the Sarpanch to conduct business thereby making the Gram Sabha meeting as a mockery of the Panchayat Raj System. The Gram Sabha meetings need to be properly conducted with due diligence by video recording its proceedings and monitored by the Director of Panchayats taking into consideration its true intentions!
Allwyn Jorge, Carmona
