PONDA: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION. The officials from the Directorate of
Panchayats, Block Development Offices (BDOs) and even some panchayat
secretaries have now clarified that Panchayats cannot stop villagers from
filming gram sabhas stating that there is no law preventing them from recording
the proceedings.
The clarification comes
following the recent incident at the Shiroda gram sabha wherein a panch member
stopped two villagers by stating that they cannot record videos without
permission. This led to clashes between them and the matter landed at the Ponda
Police Station.
It may be recalled that earlier several panchayats
in Ponda taluka stopped villagers from filming the gram sabhas proceedings.
However, in December 2016, the State government
amended the Panchayat Raj Act.
Rule 18 was added to the Act, which stated, “The
proceedings of every gram sabha meeting shall be recorded in a video film and
shall form the part of the gram sabha records.”
When O Heraldo contacted BDO officials, Panchayat
secretaries and even a former Sarpanch, they said the panchayats cannot stop
villagers from video recording the gram sabha proceedings. However, they said
that it is better that the panchayats record the proceedings and hand over the
videos to citizens, as they feared that some could misuse the recording or post
only a part of it on social media thereby defaming the panchayat/panch members
for vested interests or for political gains.
