The devolution of powers to Village Panchayats as well as Zilla Panchayats (ZPs)
has been hanging fire for a long time. However, though Panchayats have been
given certain powers, the ZPs have come across as the orphaned child of the grassroots
governance emphasised in the 73rd and the 74th Constitutional amendments.
The ZP members have approached the courts, they have sent memorandums and
even gone on strike seeking powers. On a regular basis memorandums are sent to the government,
but the government has been reluctant to actually part with the powers and
give them to the ZPs.
According to Soter D’Souza, formerly of
the Panchyati Raj, the ZP has to be the implementation
agency and serve as the agency
between the panchayat and the government.
“Rather than the State disposing off of
the funds, the ZP should be allowed to impose
taxes and should be given supervisory
powers over the panchayat,” he says.
However, in case this happens, then how
is it that the politicians at the State level
get any sort of control over the zillas? Especially
as ZP members would end up
controlling large areas of constituencies.
The Goa Panchayati Raj Act was passed in
the year 1994 and in the year 2000 the first ZP
elections were held in Goa on February 6.
Soon after the elections, the elected ZP members
had approached the Bench of the Bombay
High Court at Goa for devolution of power
of which the judgement was passed three
years back. In the year 2000 when they were
first elected, the 50 elected members of both
ZPs were not even provided with a place to sit.
Francisco Sardhinha was the chief minister at
that time and had failed to fulfil the demand
of elected ZPs which led them to approach
the court.
But things never really improved. In March
2011, 37 ZP members marched towards the
Goa Assembly and were arrested by the police
and later released by the SDM. They were
protesting the government’s failure to look
into their long-pending demands.
The High Court in its order had directed
the State government to give powers to the
ZPs. After that the State government formed a
committee headed by then Power minister
Aleixo Sequeira to look into devolution of
powers of ZPs. But even 14 years after that the
committee was formed it has not even sat
once. This led to the ZP members holding a
massive protest and got arrested.
Now that the elections have been fought
on party lines and the BJP has managed to get
both the ZP committees, there is hope that
powers will be given to the district bodies. According
to the new ZP chiefs, they have already
met with the chief minister as well as the
panchayat minister and there have been
promises made.
What will happen? Time will tell.
