Venan Dias
Recently the CM of Goa made a statement that a sarpanch in the Panchayat does not serve the full term of five years in office, this phenomenon occurs mainly due to the vested interest within the panch members or from external forces, who often connive with the panch members and get the sarpanch removed.
As I understand the Panchayati Raj was introduced to address the needs of village or in other words strengthen the Gaonkars of the village. But in recent times we see that the same Panchayati Raj which was to strengthen villages has weakened them, because of some corrupt panch members in the system. The very people who we give an opportunity to serve us change their colours after attaining power. All this happens because there are no proper mechanisms to keep it in check and ask them for accountability.
Let us take a scenario 1. A village “X” has nine wards, if there are two candidates contesting for election in one ward each, two stamp papers of Rs 50 value should be bought and the candidate has to swear by an affidavit. Once the candidate is elected the affidavit should be Notarized.
More rules can be added to keep the activities of the panch under control. By doing so this particular nominee owes allegiance to the ward, from which s/he has been elected. This makes them more accountable to the particular ward. This will reduce the number of Gram Sabhas and unproductive talks, as there would be more transparency in all the Panchayat dealings. And this entire activity has to be done before the election and not after the election process.
In case the panch circumvents the affidavit, the concerned ward members can sue the particular panch and the consent of the panch could be nullified.
In the current scenario the panch members have taken an authoritarian role and suppress the villagers by making unrealistic demands in cash or kind. While the people should have been given a participatory role to take decisions for the good of the village. Even a help desk at the Panchayat office could be of great help it would be the prerogative of the help desk to guide the people about attaining licenses by doing proper legal paper work and not fall at the mercy of panch members by bribing them.
Being a Gaonkar from Santo Estevam Village one of the major issue is about garbage which has not been tackled by the Panchayat even after receiving the grants from the Directorate of Panchayats and to make it worse the present sarpanch allegedly does not have any clue about the matter and gives vague answers which are not in line with the topic.
I appeal to the people of all villages in Goa, to ward off all these shortcomings and to get clean, committed, educated and efficient people to run our Panchayats.
We need to seriously consider the above mechanism and implement it for the betterment of our villages and to keep the reigns of the village in our hands. When this strategy is implemented only then we can hope for a full tenure of a Sarpanch in the Panchayat.
