Financial crisis threatening State

By Our Special Correspondent

PATNA, DEC. 3. The Bihar Government is truly caught in the horns of a dilemma pressurised by two constitutional imperatives ignoring either of which portends financial disaster.

The State Government's present disposition to hold elections to the panchayats after a gap of 23 years early next year threatens to clash with the national exercise of carrying out a population census at almost the same time.

The problem arises from the State Government's professed seriousness in devolving power at the village level in keeping with the law of the country, something which it had been avoiding all these years for reasons best known to itself, showing no signs of revising its programme.

The State Government has been under pressure from both the courts and the Centre to fulfill this constitutional obligation, which it now contemplates to fulfill in the desperate bid to reduce its financial constraints made worse by the loss of a good part of its revenue following a division of the State.

The Bihar Government is said to have been denied at least Rs. 670 crores by the Centre under the JRY Scheme for its failure to have elected local bodies at the grass-root level. The State Government admittedly would stand to lose more if it fails to comply with the constitutional requirements on this count by the end of the current financial year.

The State Government is yet to come up with a solution to abide by the other constitutional necessity of allowing for the 10 yearly population enumeration even while going ahead with its plan of holding the panchayat elections. The State Government is quite aware that an accurate head count would only to its own advantage following the change in the criteria of disbursement of Central funds to the States.

The Census Directorate has written to the State Government expressing its concern over the decision of the State Government to hold the panchayat elections even while the census operation would be under way. It has made it clear that it would require about 1.75 lakh employees and officials for the purpose and that the first job of such personnel would be to complete the task of population enumeration and that their services could not be sought on a priority basis for any other job.

It has pointed out that it had already notified officials right from the BDO level to that of the District Magistrate as census officers and that they had already been imparted with necessary training to carry out their jobs once it is taken up early next year.

The State Government has not reacted to the letter of the Census Directorate, but the fact remains that it would not be easy to carry out the panchayat elections without the administrative support of these officials who have been drawn for enumeration work.

The fact remains that there is no stopping the census job, but it is not clear whether the State Government wants to go ahead with its decision to notify the panchayat elections as scheduled on January 5 or defer it yet again till after the completion of the population count.

A decision in this regard would make matters worse for the State Government as it would only strain its relations with the Centre further whom it has been accusing of treating the State in a step-motherly way be it with regard to natural calamities or coming to the rescue of its distressed farmers.

Time alone will tell if the Government was indeed serious about holding the panchayat elections. What might well have deterred the State Government from gathering the courage to revive the gram sabhas might well have been the experience in 1978 when the clashes took a heavy toll of life. While the official figure was 88 deaths, the unofficial figure was close to 500.

But even if it does actually stand by its decision to hold the elections, the State Government would still be beset with several problems. One of them is that it might be required to print the ballot papers afresh as the old ones printed way back in 1995 have become invalid as some of the free symbols have since been allocated by the Election Commission to parties such as the RJD, NCP and the Samajwadi Party.

It cost the Government about Rs. 5 crores then given the price escalation, the same would now entail a higher burden on the exchequer. The five-year gap also underscores the seriousness of the State Government in holding the panchayat elections. At least the Patna High Court has lost hope dismissing a PIL in this regard after a two year struggle to restore democracy at the lower level.

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