Samras
in Panchayat is SomRas to Kill Grassroots
Democracy
Article 243E(1)
of the Constitution says: "Every
Panchayat, unless sooner dissolved under
any law for the time being in force,
shall continue for five years from the
date appointed for its first meeting
and no longer... (3) An election to
constitute a Panchayat shall be completed
(a) before the expiry of its duration
specified in clause (1); (b) before
the expiration of a period of six months
from the date of its dissolution.
When
the Gram Panchayat elections were finally
set in motion in December 2001 in Gujarat
after a delay of one-and-a-half years,
the state government came up with “Samras
Gram “ yojna (‘Consensus’
Village Scheme), which according to the state
government, was launched to gift direct
monetary assistance to those villages
that unanimously selected their village
councils without fights or contest. Under
this scheme, the Samras villages, according
to population size were given cash
awards ranging from Rs. 60,000 to Rs.
1 lakh.
Though “Samras”
on the face of it, tries to promote
harmony in villages but takes away what
our Constitution has given to every citizen
- the right to contest and the right to
vote. The Sarvodaya leader, Chunibhai
Vaidya, had remarked in 2001 that pressing
for unanimous elections was dangerous
because it permitted the dominant communities
to take control of the village Panchayats.
In one of PRIA’s workshops in 2001,
ex-Chief Election Commissioner Mr. Lyndogh
termed Samras and like initiatives as
“manufactured consensus” and
totally unconstitutional in nature. Samras
is against the very ethos of democracy
and takes away the right of the marginalised
to participate in their process of governance.
Gujarat
or for that matter most of the Indian states
have glaring inequalities. In such circumstances
Samras will only oppress the voice of
women, poor, Dalit and minorities. During
the last Panchayat election in Gujarat,
27.2% (total 3761 village Panchayats)
were declared as Samras.
Again
after five years when Gujarat Panchayat
elections are taking place, it is heard
that Gujarat government is mobilising its
machinery to promote and press (or manipulate)
for Samaras. Development administration
from secretary to state to village level
official like Talati have been asked to
ensure that most of the villages go without
Panchayat election and opt for Samras.
There is fear among the supporters of grassroots
democracy that any opposition by them will
invite the ire of the government and the Modi Empire
may take revenge .
Samras
is illegal and unsocial. It is illegal
because it goes against Art 243-E of the
Constitution and it is unsocial as Samras
is nothing but pushing consensus in favor
of rich and powerful ones and thus excluding the
poor and less privileged from governance
at local levels. So, the time has come that
every Indian should think and raise his/her voice against strangulation of democracy
in Gujarat Gram Panchayats.
