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Local Governmentand

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UNIT - III

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Chapter 5

t's a special day today! Everyone'srushing to get to the Gram Sabha!

Do you know why? Because the GramSabha is holding its first meeting afterthe election of thenewGramPanchayat.

The people of Hardas village are keento find out what their new Panchayatleaders have planned for the village.

Gram SabhaThe Gram Sabha meeting begins withthe Panchayat President (who is alsocalled the Sarpanch) and the membersof the Panchayat (the Panchs)presenting a plan on repairing the roadthat connects the village to the mainhighway. After this, the discussionmoves to the subject of water andwater shortages.

The Gram Sabha is a meeting of alladults who live in the area coveredby a Panchayat. This could be onlyone village or a few villages. In somestates, as in the example above, avillage meeting is held for eachvillage. Anyone who is 18 years oldor more and who has the right to voteis a member of the Gram Sabha.

What happens after people elect theirrepresentatives? How are decisions made? Let'slook at how this takes place in rural areas. Here,we look at the Gram Sabha, which is a meetingwhere people directly participate and seekanswers from their elected representatives.

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44 / Social and Political Life

A villager called Tijia begins themeeting by saying, "The water problemin Hardas has become very acute. Thehand pump water has gone well belowthe point up to which the ground hasbeen drilled. We hardly get any waterin the taps. Women have to go to theSuru river which is 3 k.m. away to getwater." One of the members suggestspiping water from the Suru and makingan overhead tank in the village toincrease the supply. But the othersthink that this will be expensive. It'sbetter, they feel, to deepen thehandpumps and clean the wells for thisseason. Tijia says, "This is not enough.

We need to do something morepermanent as groundwater levels seemto be going down every year. We'reusing more water than is seeping intothe ground."

Another member, Anwar then tellseveryone that he has seen ways ofconserving water and recharging(refilling) it in a village in Maharashtrawhere he'd once gone to visit hisbrother. It was called watersheddevelopment and he had heard that thegovernment gave money for this work.

In his brother's village people hadplanted trees, constructed check-damsand tanks. Everyone thought this wasan interesting idea and the GramPanchayat was asked to find out aboutit in detail.

The next item on the agenda for theGram Sabha is the finalisation of thelist of people below the poverty line(BPL) which had to be approved by theGram Sabha. As soon as the list is readout people begin to whisper. "Natwarhas just bought a colour T.V. and hisson has sent him a new motorcycle.How can he be below the poverty line?"Soorajmal mutters to the person sittingnext to him. Saroj says to Sukhi bai"How did Birju's name get on to the list?He has so much land. This list should

1. What is a Gram Sabha?

2. In the meeting of the GramSabha so far what are theproblems that are beingdiscussed? What sort of solutionsare being suggested?

Every village Panchayat isdivided into wards, i.e. smallerareas. Each ward elects arepresentative who is known asthe Ward Member (Panch). Allthe members of the Gram Sabhaalso elect a Sarpanch who is thePanchayat President. The WardPanchs and the Sarpanch formthe Gram Panchayat. The GramPanchayat is elected for fiveyears.

The Gram Panchayat has aSecretary who is also theSecretary of the Gram Sabha.This person is not an electedperson but is appointed by thegovernment. The Secretary isresponsible for calling themeeting of the Gram Sabha andGram Panchayat and keeping arecord of the proceedings.

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have only poor people. And Om

Prakash is a landless labourer who can

barely make ends meet, yet his name is

not on the list." "You know that both

Natwar and Birju are friends of

Amirchand. Who can counter

Amirchand's power?” Sukhi bai says,

"Amirchand was the earlier Zamindar

(landowner) of the village and still has

control over a lot of land. But we should

get Om Prakash's name put in."

The Sarpanch (Panchayat Presi-

dent) notices people whispering and

asks if anyone has anything to say.

Saroj tries to provoke Soorajmal to ask

about Natwar and Birju. But he keeps

quiet. Amirchand is sitting in the Gram

Sabha keeping an eye on everyone.

Then Saroj gets up and says that Om

Prakash's name should be in the BPL

list. Others agree that he and his family

are very poor. The Sarpanch asks how

his name had been missed out. The

person who did the survey of BPL

families says, "Om Prakash's house

was locked when I went there. He may

have gone somewhere to look for work."

The Sarpanch gives instructions that

Om Prakash's family income be looked

at and if it is less than what has been

decided by the government, his name

should be included in the list.

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1. Was there a problem with the BPLlist that the Gram Sabha wasfinalising? What was this problem?

2. Why do you think Soorajmal keptquiet even though Saroj asked him tospeak?

3. Have you seen any similarincidents when people are unable tospeak for themselves? Why do youthink that happened and whatprevented the person from speaking?

4. How can the Gram Sabha preventthe Panchayat from doing what itlikes?

The Gram Sabha is a key factor in making the Gram Panchayat play its role and beresponsible. It is theplace where all plans forthe work of the GramPanchayat are placedbefore the people.

The Gram Sabhaprevents the Panchayatfrom doing wrong thingslike misusing money or favouring certainpeople. It plays animportant role in keepingan eye on the electedrepresentatives and inmaking them responsibleto the persons whoelected them.

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The Gram Panchayat

The Gram Panchayat meets regularlyand one of its main tasks is toimplement development programmesfor all villages that come under it. Asyou have seen, the work of the GramPanchayat has to be approved by theGram Sabha.

In some states, Gram Sabhas formcommittees like construction anddevelopment committees. Thesecommittees include some members ofthe Gram Sabha and some from theGram Panchayat who work together tocarry out specific tasks.

Let's see what the Hardas GramPanchayat was able to do.

Do you remember the options thatwere suggested to solve the waterproblem in the Gram Sabha of Hardasvillage? When the Hardas GramPanchayat held a meeting, this pointwas brought up again by some of themembers (Panchs). This meeting wasattended by the Sarpanch, WardMembers (Panchs) and the Secretary.

Gram Panchayat members firstdiscussed the suggestion to deepen twohandpumps and clean one well, so thatthe village would not go without water.The Sarpanch (Panchayat President)suggested that since the Panchayat hadreceived some money for maintenanceof handpumps, this could be used

Two village Panchs fromMaharashtra who wereawarded the Nirmal Gram Puruskar in 2005 forthe excellentworkdoneby them in thePanchayat.

The work of a Gram Panchayatincludes

1. The construction and maintenanceof water sources, roads, drainage,school buildings and othercommon property resources.

2. Levying and collecting local taxes. 3. Executing government schemes

related to generating employmentin the village.

Sources of funds for thePanchayatq Collection of taxes on houses,

market places etc.q Government scheme funds received

through various departments of thegovernment – through the Janpadand Zila Panchayats.

q Donations for community works etc.

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Panchayati Raj / 47

for completing this work. Themembers agreed and the Secretaryrecorded their decision.

The members then went on todiscuss the options for a long-termsolution. They were sure that theGram Sabha members would askquestions at the next meeting. SomePanchs asked whether the watershedprogramme would make a substantialdifference to the water level. A lot ofdiscussion followed. In the end it wasdecided that the Gram Panchayatwould approach the BlockDevelopment Officer and get moreinformation on the scheme.

Three Levels of PanchayatsAfter reading about what happened inthe Gram Sabha and the GramPanchayat in Hardas village you canunderstand that the Panchayati RajSystem is a process through whichpeople participate in their owngovernment. In rural areas, the GramPanchayat is the first tier or level ofdemocratic government. The Panchsand the Gram Panchayat areanswerable to the Gram Sabhabecause it is the members of the GramSabha who elected them.

This idea of people's participationin the Panchayati Raj system extendsto two other levels. One is the Blocklevel, which is called the JanpadPanchayat or the Panchayat Samiti.The Panchayat Samiti has many GramPanchayats under it. Above thePanchayat Samiti is the DistrictPanchayat or the Zila Parishad. The

What decisions were taken by theGram panchayat?

Do you think it was necessary forthem to take these decisions?Why?

From the above description, writedown one question that peoplecould ask of the Panchayat in thenext Gram Sabha meeting.

Watershed management has transformedthis barren slope to a green meadow injust two years.

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48 / Social and Political Life

Zila Parishad actually makesdevelopmental plans at the districtlevel. With the help of PanchayatSamitis, it also regulates the moneydistribution among all the GramPanchayats.

Within the guidelines given in theConstitution each state in the countryhas its own laws with regard toPanchayats. The idea is to provide

more and more space for people toparticipate and raise their voices.

Ask your teacher to invite any ofthe elected persons such as thePanch, Sarpanch (PanchayatPresident) or member of theJanpad or Zila Panchayat andinterview them on their work andthe projects undertaken by them.

QUESTIONS

1. What problem did the villagers in Hardas village face? What did they do tosolve this problem?

2. What, in your opinion, is the importance of the Gram Sabha? Do you thinkall members should attend Gram Sabha meetings? Why?

3. What is the link between a Gram Sabha and a Gram Panchayat?

4. Take an example of any one task done by a Panchayat in your area/nearbyrural area and find out the following:a. Why it was taken up.b. Where the money came from.c. Whether or not the work has been completed.

5. What is the difference between a Gram Sabha and a Gram Panchayat?

6. Read the following news item.Nimone is a village on the Chauphula-Shirur Road. Like many others, this villagehas also been facing a severe water shortage for the last few months and villagersdepend on tankers for all their needs. Bhagvan Mahadeo Lad (35) of this village wasbeaten with sticks, iron rods and axes by a group of seven men. The incident cameto light when some villagers brought a badly injured Lad to hospital for treatment.In the FIR recorded by the police Lad said that he was attacked when he insistedthat the water in the tanker must be emptied into the storage tanks constructed aspart of the water supply scheme by Nimone Gram Panchayat so that there would beequal distribution of water. However, he alleged that the upper caste men wereagainst this and told him that the tanker water was not meant for the lower castes.

Adapted from Indian Express, May 1, 2004a. Why was Bhagvan beaten?b. Do you think that the above is a case of discrimination? Why?

7. Find out more about watershed development and how it benefits an area?

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Unit_IIIUnit_III Chapter 5