A disagreement between the Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP), the social outreach wing of the State’s influential Roman Catholic Church and the Goa Government over the jurisdiction of the powers of gram sabhas has now come in the open.
After the CSJP wrote to the Chief Minister expressing that his and his Government’s stand that the gram sabhas or village councils have no authority to dictate terms to the elected panchayat body was erroneous, Parrikar has replied that he is indeed right in his contention.
“The format prescribed for issuance of construction for licence under the Goa Panchayati Raj Rules requires the Sarpanch to state the resolution number and the date of the meeting of the panchayat in which the permission for the construction was approved,” Parrikar said in his reply to Fr Savio Fernandes, executive secretary of the CSJP in the letter.
Parrikar quotes several sections of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act to buttress his claim.
The correspondence between CSJP and Parrikar was officially released to the media by the State information and publicity department on Friday.
In their letter the CSJP had said, “The resolutions of the gram sabha are binding on the panchayat body, provided it is not contrary to the rules and regulations framed under the panchayat act or any other law in force,” the council said, adding that the Panchayati Raj was not about representative democracy but about direct democracy.
Since the year 2008 the gram sabhas have been especially vocal about the kind of constructions that are coming up in their villages very often violently confronting their elected members about granting permissions against the wishes of the people or the gram sabha resolutions.
People have usually been vocal about large projects either residential or commercial like that of hotels or industries. Physical clashes, adjournments and sarpanchas giving up in frustration were not uncommon.
The CSJP claims that the gram sabha has the absolute right to sign off on projects and decisions in its own village, under sub-section 1 of section 6 of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act 1994 which aims to promote participatory democracy (as against representative democracy), successive Governments, including the incumbent one, have rejected its position, insisting instead that the elected village panchayat was the final authority, especially related to construction projects.
While the Goa Church in a letter to the Chief Minister on April 15, had said that the “Goa Government owes an apology to the people for repeated demeaning allegations against the gram sabhas claiming them to be incompetent and lowering their position to that of a watchdog of the panchayats”, Parrikar in his response has cautioned the Church against jumping the gun.
“You have rightly pointed out the binding nature of the resolutions of the gram sabhas subject to a limitation therein appear in Section 6(4) of the Act. The powers of the panchayats with regard to regulation of erection of buildings is provided in Section 66 of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act...” Parrikar said.
Another disagreement had come to light earlier with the CJSP expressing disappointment about the Government handling the meat scarcity in the State, saying that the Government failed to act with a sense of urgency.
Catholics account for 26 per cent of the State’s populations, with Catholics known to be a group that is vocal about civil issues.