After a prolonged battle, residents succeeded in getting the State government to accord panchayat status to Harvalem village on February 25, 2013. But despite having completed one year of their panchayat, the residents are yet to exercise their basic right ~ right to vote.
The irony of the situation is that residents had been boycotting polls since the past five years, while their village was a part of Sanquelim municipality and they had even prevented candidates from contesting elections in their ward.
“After getting our panchayat, we had great hopes that we would now finally get a chance to elect our own representatives, but even after an year we are still denied panchayat elections,” a resident told Herald.
Since the past one year, Harvalem panchayat has been ruled by an administrator and many residents are now wondering if their struggle to separate Harvalem from Sanquelim was well worth the effort.
Sanquelim and Harvalem have had a chequered history of political changes according to the whims and fancies of politicians. Having been classified a panchayat since Liberation, Sanquelim was upgraded to a municipality in 1999 and the government appointed an administrator. Stiff public opposition forced the government to reverse its decision and return Sanquelim to its panchayat status in December 2000.
Panchayat elections were declared in April 2001 and the panchayat completed its five-year term. Elections to the new panchayat were declared in April 2006, but barely two days before the polls, the government elevated the status of Sanquelim to a municipality and appointed an administrator to the council. Elections to the 10-member Sanquelim municipal council were held in 2008.
Furious with the government’s arbitrary move, residents of Upper Harvalem (which was then ward 1 of Sanquelim) demanded panchayat status for Sanquelim and even threatened to boycott the 2008 polls. The government ignored their warning and went ahead with elections, but all voters of ward 1 retaliated by boycotting the polls in a unique show of solidarity.
Assuming that the protests would fizzle, authorities decided to hold by-elections to the ward after a year. Three candidates filed their nominations, but the vigilant residents of Upper Harvalem thwarted such moves and forced all three candidates to withdraw from the fray.
They demanded that Harvalem should be either given separate panchayat status or should be included in Honda panchayat.
“Most people from this ward live below poverty line and were unable to pay higher municipal taxes. Hence, we wanted a panchayat,” claimed a villager, Samir Malik.
The BJP government finally fulfilled their demand and on February 25, 2013, notified Harvalem panchayat as the 190th panchayat in the State.
In this process, the Sanquelim Municipal Council lost two wards to the newly created Harvalem panchayat, while the remaining eight wards were delimited and turned into 10 wards.
“After we got the panchayat we had great hopes that all our problems would be solved as we had experienced great difficulties without a proper representative for about five years. We thought that it was all over but now even after a year, the authorities are yet to conduct elections in the panchayat,” a resident, Sagar Parwar, told Herald.
“As there are no representatives in our panchayat, we have been neglected and we still await development in the area. When the panchayat was formed, it was hardly given any funds. Under the administrator, the budget for the year 2013-14 was done, but there are still no funds. For the people, there is hardly any difference in Harvalem before and after it was a panchayat.”
