The newly formed gram panchayat of Rishigaon in Khariar block of Nuapada district is still to be made operational even after three months of completion of the rural polls in the State.
Thanks to the apathy of the block and district level administrations, the development works in the gram panchayat have come to a standstill, as the newly formed GP has not been formally constituted due to lack of quorum. Resultantly, the poor job seekers are worst sufferers of the system.
Out of 11 Wards in the GP, members from only five Wards returned as elected as voters of the remaining wards had boycotted the election.
In this scenario, the district administration should have nominated the members from the remaining Wards according to Odisha Gram Panchayat Election Rules 1965 (OGPE ) immediately. “However, no step has been initiated by the administration to nominate members,” rued Malyabanta Suna, the Sarpanch elect.
“We don’t understand why the district administration is delaying the process,” he added.
The duly elected ward members numbering five and the Sarpanch, all were elected unopposed. But, as per the requirement the majority should be elected for constitution of the panchayat. The Sub-Collector is empowered to nominate members from the vacant Wards. Simply put, if there is a failure of election so held for the second time, the election officer shall forthwith report to the Sub Divisional Officer for nomination of a person under Section 13 of the OGP Act 1965 to fill up the vacancy.
Rule 54 further says that, the Sub-Collector after being intimated about failure of election for the second time by the Election Officer shall nominate a person to such seat with the least practicable delay and inform the Election Officers so that he may include the name of the nominated person in the notification under Section 15 of the Act.
The words ‘least practicable delay’ and ‘include the name in the notification’ imply that the nomination should have been done during the election process itself, so that it could have been notified along with other GPs in the block.
The newly elected members have approached the block and district officials repeatedly but instead of resolving the issue, the officials learnt to have misguided them advising to seek shelter of the court.
The District Panchayat Officer (DPO), Nuapada during his visit to the block on Saturday last stated that the block had not submitted any report in this regard whereas the BDO said that the block had sent details on the issue soon after the completion of the second round of nomination to the district office. Suna, Sarpanch elect, warned of agitation if things are not sorted out in a week.