 |
| Kashmir Times |
Panchs, Sarpanchs Decry Security, Empowerment
…But Coalition Partners Eyeing 'MISSION 2014'
Raman Sharma
Now it has been almost two years that the state coalition
government is orchestrating so loud and making promises to the 33,000 elected
Panchayat members that the NC-Congress government is quite sincere in
strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the State but beyond this lip
service and formulation of so called expert panels nothing tangible has been
done to give a sigh of relief to the elected village heads who before the
elections were shown a very glowing picture and were made to believe that after
elections they would not only be given an opportunity to be a part of the basic
democratic units but also enjoy power devolution and would also be able to
serve their respective constituencies (Halqas). But this Cup of extra sugared
Coffee never reached the Lip and in cold war between the National Conference
and Congress Party the village heads are rendered helpless to suffer between
the tug of war between Nation's oldest Party and the state's oldest Party.
Right from Congress Party's National top Brass like Rahul Gandhi to State unit
of party headed by Professor Saifudin Soz, the party projected itself as
pro-Panchayats and made public announcements that the party would do whatever
necessary to implement 73rd amendment of Indian Constitution here in J & K
to strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions. On the other side, the National
Conference also assert for strengthening the local self governance units in
rural areas but with a caveat that because of article 370 the Indian laws
cannot be directly extended in the state.
Anyhow, once again 2 months ago another so called expert
panel of Congress Party has submitted its recommendations to the state
government for strengthening the PRI's and on the name of further study the
report, the state government ordered formulation of another commission having
members from the rural development and Panchayat ministry . This commission
comprising of bureaucrats has also submitted its report and recommendations to
the state government but yet the government is not taking any decision and
still trying to buy more times. It is pertinent to mention here that earlier
also the state government hired the services of Delhi based NGO to suggest
recommendations and to make a critical comparison between the Jammu and Kashmir
Panchayti Raj Act and the Union Panchayti Raj Law. Unfortunately the state
government never ever made this report public which has suggested so many
positive recommendations and underlined many shortcoming in the state
Panchayati Raj Act.
The state government has simply failed to convince the
elected Panchayat members that it was sincere to give powers to them. The only
thing the J & K governments and its ministers talk about is that the state
government has put 14 departments under the control of Panchayats. This is
perhaps the biggest joke of the century because the GAD circulars make it ample
clear that in these 14 departments any Panch or Sarpanch can only do the role
of a whistle blower and nothing else. For example in forest department if any
Sarpanch finds someone is cutting a tree in his Panchayat Halqa Jurisdiction he
can simply make a complain to the concerned forest official which other wisely
an ordinary citizen can also do. And in any educational institute say a primary
school if any village head finds absence of a teacher or any other staff member
in this case also he has to report to the concerned ZEO, zonal education
officer. The Panchayat member cannot even recommend any disciplinary action
against any delinquent officer or official not even a class iv employee.
The only good thing in this period of two years the state
government did for the Panchayat representatives is announcement of honorarium
to them, the state government has announced Rs. 2000/month (Rs. 66/day) for the
Sarpanch and Rs. 1000/Month (Rs. 33/day) for Panch which no way can be
justified in this era of high inflation. Last but not the least, so far 6
Sarpanches have been assassinated by the unidentified gunmen but both the union
and the state government remain clueless and eyeing 2014 elections (both lok
sabha and assembly elections are due in 2014). GOI and State government are
trying to bury this important issue under carpet ignoring the consequences.
Calling it as personal rivalry to selected targets the people at the helm of
affairs are not willing to face the bitter truth that the situation is going
out of hand and if immediate action is not taken then no one can stop the
history to repeat itself. God forbids, if 1987 election scenario is repeated
then who will come forward to participate in democratic process therefore both
Congress and National Conference should shun their petty political points and
do whatever necessary to keep the flame of constitution and democratic
principles alive. In a major embarrassment for the government of India and the
state now these scared Panches and Sarpanches have urged the World Human Rights
Organizations to intervene in the matter of killings of Panchayat members. The
other mainstream political parties also needs to raise the genuine grievances
of the 33000 elected Panchayat members who are feeling helpless in absence of
any power in their hand and are also fearing for risk to their lives because
they have received open threat by a terror outfit's commander from across the
border. About Raman Sharma, he is an RTI activist and can be reached
[a]jkrtiact@gmail.com.
published in Early Times, JK Newspoint, Kashmir Times, Journey Line, The Northlines and many others
No comments:
Post a Comment