Goa needs reforms in Panchayat Raj Act.
Recently I visited Goa and I observed that public administration is completely derailed in Goa. There is no law and order and each one act as per his guise. When you visit any department for any administrative work they tell you ( Faleam yo Saib Na). I made a point to meet several departmentschefs and to my utter surprise all were non Goans. I tried to converse in Konkani with the administration but no one was able to speak in Konkani. These outsiders or so called administrators do not have any Goan ethos nor our culture then why the hell they are given the jobs to run the Goan administration. I am wondering as how come that the Goan has given the rein to non Goans or baile. Are Goans not capable or qualified to run the Goan administration? How come the Baile get the jobs in Goa at the cost of the Goan and not Goan in his own land? Why are the Goans silent on this issue? I had a chance to attend a village Gran Sabha. I was shocked to witness the chaotic scene, uproar, accusation, mistrust and allegations, frustration, enmity, and no respect to the Panchyat authority. One can say that Goans are frustrated and fed up with the present system set up. This frustration is partly due to the election of uneducated Sarpanches, and Panches. Their sole motive is to make quick bucks in the illegal manner by harassing their own village Goan in the name of the law. Ethics and morals have completely eroded in our so called rulers. There is no accountability; no action is taken by the higher up when the illegality is brought to their notice. Everything seems to be casual. We Goans have created our own mess due to faulty legislation by passing the TCP act, and Panchyat Raj Act. These acts have lot of pot and loop holes and ultimately brought irregularities, illegalities and misery to Goa and the Goans. Tell me how many of our legislators understand the very essence of the law. May be few of them and the rest are so called in French les Poubles. Our Sarpanches are arrogant and ignorant and they play dirty. They believe that they are above the people who elected them. Then we have the so called secretaries to help Sarpanch to carry out their illegal activities. The sarpanches issue licences at their vims and fancies and sell their souls for 30 dines to builders of Mega projects in the villages. They are the one who have brought total destruction and disfigured our lovely scenic villages. In order to put the thing right the Goa Governement should adopt the Swiss Panchayat system of running the local body. I dont see a major difference in running the Goa Panchayat to that of Swiss Commune System. Being a part of the system for the last 30 years and also a counsellor for 10 years I could suggest some solution to improve the Goa Panchayat Raj System. In order to improve the functioning of the Panchayat one has to amend the Panchayat Raj Act so that it adopts the best clauses which govern the Swiss Commune System. Swiss commune adopted the principal of direct democracy that is to say wherein people have a SAY or (people participation in decision making) in all issues concerning their villages. All these issues are presented to the people and it is the people who decide by voting what is good and what is bad for their village. No one can alter a decision one voted by the people. It is binding on the Executive. That is why the local institution is very powerful. It functions as a state within the state. Lot of power is divulgated to the Commune or the local Body. The rules and regulation of the Commune are framed within the state constitution. Each Commune or the local body is sacrosanct institution has its own rules and regulation. The people are very much attached to it Commune and its identity. The democratic roots of this institution are firmly anchored into its people. Each commune is run as small government wherein the people choose their counsellors for 4 years. They elect via direct voting. The five elected executive members in turn will run the Commune or the local body. The different portfolios like finance, health, education, public work; electricity, village planning, environment, police, transport, fire brigade etc, etc are shared among the five executive members who are responsible to the Conseil Générale or we can call it a (Grand Sabha). 40 elected members represent 4000 people. These 40 members come from different political ideologies or parties who all work for the welfare of the village. The Executive is seconded by different Commissions headed by 4 or 5 members of different political parties. Their role is to control the Executive and also make proposals, suggestions and objections. The administration is run by a full time Administrator (secretary) nominated by the Conseil General (Grand Sabha). He is the employee of the commune and his salary is paid by the Commune. He is totally responsible for the smooth functioning of the Commune. He can be fired at any time if he mismanages the Commune or if his found incompetent. His role is to assist the Executive and his presence is obligatory for each session of Conseil Génerale (Grand Sabha). Conseill Générale elects out of 40 members it President, Secretary, and other members. The Conseil Général meets once a month to deliberate all the village issues. It has power to make laws for the village, pass budget of the Commune, and impose taxes, fines. No state government intervenes in the functioning of the village except if it thinks that the state law has been transgressed. My proposal to Goa Government is that Goa should adopt the Swiss system of running the Panchayat. This process will encourage the democratic functioning and also encourage the people direct participation in decision making process. Appoint village the Supervisory Committees to look after the burning issue like Garbage Management Committees, Minutes scrutiny committee, Budget committee, Audit committee, Licensing policies committee, Infrastructures development committee planning committee, finance committee, etc in the village. To achieve all round progress in the village one should be guide by the principal of greater transparency & accountability and that is the only way to make Democracy Work at the grass root level. Recently I was amazed to read that the Minister in charge of Goa Panchayat wanted to amend the Panchayat Raj Act by introducing an amendment Bill 2009. I was astonished that the very representative of the people is acting against the people who elected him. I dont understand his philosophies or his motives behind these amendments. What I feel is that he wants to destroy the fundamentals of democracy at the grass root level. Is he aware of the consequences of this amendment? It looks like that he has no sufficient qualification or he is illiterate or he does not understand head or tail of this legislation. Did any of our MLAs or Cabinet Ministers oppose this amendment? As what I understood is that he is trying to do by amending the Panchayat Raj Act is that he sought to transfer the Sarpanchs' powers who is the head of the village to Panchayat secretaries, who are the employee of the village, for the purpose of issuing construction licences on the direction of the deputy director of Panchayats or block development officer (BDO) and against the resolution of the Gram Sabha. This guy is a monster and a destructor of democracy. The citizens need to corner these kinds of politicians. My dear Minister please understands if you have intelligence or brain that Sarpanch is the head of the village and he is sovereign authority of the village. The entire village responsibility is shouldered by him. Who are you to curb his authority? Did you forget that you and the Bureaucrats are the servant of all the Goan villagers and your salaries are paid by the Goans and your term in office is only 5 years? Wake up Goans and give a kick on this Ministers ass and show him the door. I firmly believe that the minister for Panchayat Raj is working against the spirit of self-governance by seeking to push forth these amendments. As for me he is a violator of the constitutional provisions. So he has to be attacked in the court of law for his ignorance and voluntary misdeeds. My fellow Goans if this amendment is passed by the Goa legislative assembly than it will be a doom to Village Panchayat Raj in Goa. This would result in vesting the director of Panchayats and other officers within the state administration with arbitrary powers. This amendment will favourite the Bureaucrats and surely opens a Pandora box for corruption manipulation of records and other violations. This minister will do gross injustice and harm to Panchayat Raj institutions. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT OR THIS WHAT IS WAITING FOR YOU. So Goan rise up and fight that the new section 244C to the Goa Panchayat Raj Act 1994 is dropped which is against the norms of the Panchayati Raj. Goan should demande and fight to the end that the government devolve all powers and duties to village Panchayats in accordance with the article 243 and schedule XI as available after the 73rd amendment to the constitution of India. Wake up Goans, wake up, time is running. It is time that this anti people government should go, go, go. The people of each village and NGO should start the crusade to dislodge this government. Bruno Gomes Switzerland
