Gandhiji professed village self reliance and autonomy as a basic tenet of Indian democracy. So his birth anniversary on October 2 has been declared as Gram Sabha Day all over India to pay homage to the great soul.
But unfortunately, the Gram Panchayat office in Suri, a tribal village under Kolnara Block having the Gram Panchayat (GP) headquarters, hardly 15 km away from Rayagada town, was locked by 11 am on the Gram Sabha Day which was nationally declared on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
With much difficulty, this correspondent could find out from E Gowri, widow of late Krishnamurty who was the night watcher of the GP that the Gram Sabha was conducted in the presence of four to five people after giving floral tribute to somebody.
Gowri was very kind to open the new GP building and welcome us inside. There was a flex depicting the theme as “Special Gram Sabha” beneath which the photo of Gandhiji was on a plastic chair garlanded. She felt proud to show sincerely a paper piece kept on the table on which scribbled daily works with a signature below. After the death of her husband, she performs the role of caretaker of the GP building. Though she did not know the relevance of the Special Gram Sabha on the day of Gandhi Jayanti, her commitment to defend the persons responsible to conduct Gram Sabha and her perseverance to convince us was touchy.
While this correspondent was taking some still photographs, one lady ward member named Huika Tulsi belonging to ward number nine and Pongili village arrived at the GP office. Tulsi was anguished over the whole episode of mismanagement of Gram Sabha. She was not informed about the timings. After an inquiry with ABDO, Kolnara, we were informed that a mega meeting on Swachh Bharat was being held under the leadership of the district Collector at Kolnara block office where all the ward members had gone to attend. Similar was the case in Therubali and Kartikaguda GPs as was confirmed by Radhesyam Panda, a local leader, inhabitant and director of NGO Palli Vikash at Therubali.
At both the places, a handful of persons came, garlanded the photo of Mahatma Gandhi and finally, locked the GP office. This year the Government spent crores of money in advertising about the Special Gram Sabha in almost all the print and electronic media. It was expected the IEC (Information, Education and Communication) campaign initiated by the State as well as Central Governments would impact the mindset of the Gram Sabha members, the voters of the country. But nothing of that sort happened at this part of the country because the bureaucracy which was supposed to facilitate the process was extremely insensitive.
To have a reality check further at Penta GP of Rayagada block, we came to know from the local tribal youths that the Gram Sabha was conducted with less than 70-80 people. Penta, which is the ancestral village of Odisha’s Tribal Minister lal Bihari Himirika, consists of more than 400 households, situated beside the proposed NH, also witnessed the same fate as far as the Gram Sabha was concerned. The Special Gram Sabha lasted hardly for one and a half hours.
But interestingly enough, the piece of paper kept on table at Suri GP mentioned several plans like CC road from the village to temple, village CC road, CC road from village to school, protection wall, toilet near Anganwadi centre, water tank canal repair, CC road at Nuasahi-Maudiguda, play ground at Maudiguda school, village paddy yard(Gaon Khala), toilet at school, meeting hall near the temple, boundary wall of Maudiguda school, metalling of road up to the village from RD road in Maudiguda, mega tank and steps into it, road from temple to canal, Mo pokhari (two nos). lo and behold, all the mega plan on a piece of paper without Gram Sabha is only for one village with signature of ward member!
Previous year, the Gram Sabhas emphasized on IPPE(Integrated Participatory Planning Exercise) which included NREGS, agriculture, horticulture, fishery and vocational skill training under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana(PMKVY), etc. This year the special Gram Sabhas are supposed to sustain the process of the yesteryear in a vigorous way.
Rabindra Patakhandala, a RTI activist and a scribe, has a plethora of questions. Are the PRI members supposed to attend Collector’s Safai-giri meeting without having the full- fledged Gram Sabhas IJ Did the Gram Sabha take a resolution not to have Gram Sabha and attend Collector’s meetingIJ Could the Safaigiri drive have been integrated with the Gram Sabha to save time, cost and elicit more participation by the villagers at grassrootsIJ Can the authorities facilitate Gram Sabhas to be held accountable for not adhering to the mandate given to themIJ Was it a correct step on the part of authorities to carry the PRI members and leaders to a central meeting to be addressed by CollectorIJ The questions are unending.
State Convenor of Odisha Adibasi Manch, now officiating as Ombudsman (MGNREGA), Rayagada district, Bidulata Huika said, “On October 2 Gram Sabha Day during my visit to Suri Panchayat, I found no Gram Sabha was held. I wanted to make the Gram Sabha members aware about the roles and responsibilities of ombudsman and use this instrument to vent out their grievances for early redressal. I also intended to monitor the labour budget, planning of projects, implementation of projects of earlier plans, etc. But unfortunately the Gram Sabha was not done. This is a sheer violation of rules,” adding, “I will seek explanation from district authorities concerned after which Chief Secretary and Panchayati Raj Secretary will be informed for action.”
“During year 1992, on this auspicious day, Rayagada district came into being after it was bifurcated from the erstwhile Koraput district. Thus exactly this is the silver jubilee year of Rayagada as a district. The political parties like BJD having Padayatra on Polavaram issue, BJP having ‘lajja Divas-Shameful Day’ and Congress exploring to counter BJD and BJP’s move on the same Gram Sabha day have made a mockery of decentralised planning,” said Bijaya Mishra of Suri Panchayat.