Maharashtra's gram sevak raj

By George Mathew

TIRTH(K) VILLAGE, with a population of 1,672 and 300-odd households, is 30 km from Osmanabad town in Maharashtra's Tuljapur taluka. It has only one primary school up to Class 7 and only one anganwadi. For the entire village there is only one borewell with one handpump. It is the only source of drinking water. Nearly 115 households are identified as below the poverty line. The Maharashtra Governor visited this village on November 11, 1997.

Maharashtra is considered a progressive State as far as panchayats are concerned. A visit to Tirth gram panchayat was therefore an eyeopener. This panchayat has seven members, Mr. Kashinath Sirsat, the sarpanch, is a Scheduled Caste (Mang) who is a man of few words. Ms. Shobha Pathade, the upa sarpanch, from a higher caste, with an education up to Class 12, is more articulate; so also is her husband. The former Sarpanch, Ms. Mangal Swamy, also a Scheduled Caste, studied up to the 7th Class. She confesses that in the first three and a half years of her five-year tenure, she was controlled by her husband and the village development officer or the gram sevak.

The sarpanch said he did not know anything about his panchayat's budget; only the gram sevak could tell us. What about last year's income expenditure statement? That was also with the gram sevak. All the papers of the gram panchayat were in the custody of the gram sevak. He takes away the key of the almirah where the records are kept. Ordinarily, a gram sevak in Maharashtra has 6-7 gram panchayats to look after and he is the custodian of everything in the village. The work of the gram panchayat centres around the gram sevak; nothing can move, nothing can happen without him. Not even a spare key is with the elected representatives, for they cannot be trusted! So much for empowerment.

How is the gram sevak? He should be someone with integrity and extraordinary commitment to the service of the people. There was a big silence. Ms. Mangal Swamy smiled. When prompted to speak up, she broke the silence in the hall. Gram sevaks are not answerable to the elected panchayat but to the Block Development Officer (BDO) only. When she was the sarpanch the then gram sevak collected Rs. 7,000 as tax and spent Rs. 1,000 to whitewash/paint the gram panchayat office on the occasion of the Governor's visit. Incidentally, the gram sevak in Maharashtra can withdraw the tax money from the bank with his own single signature. In this case, the gram sevak refused to show the accounts and when a complaint was made he was merely transferred. Last year, the new official withdrew Rs. 1,600 from the bank. Neither the account nor a report about its use was given. When the matter came into the open, the gram sevak was transferred. Any punishment? No. Because he had gone under another BDO and how could the Tuljapur BDO punish him? The gram sevaks cultivate their own clientele in their panchayats. They go to the houses, discuss the funds availability under different Centrally-sponsored schemes, and fix a percentage for ensuring the sanction of individual applications. Creating a support base among the ``well to do'' in the panchayat, the gram sevak becomes popular in the area. The gram panchayat and its elected members are inconsequential. After all, democracy and election in villages are a mere formality prescribed in the Constitution.

I took the Tirth case as an exception in the State and wanted to know how things were in other villages. In Wakharwadi, Tugaon, Wadgaon and Yadshi gram panchayats in a 60 km radius of Osmanabad town and also Chincholi and Ramvadi villages in Latur district, everyone I met had more or less the same story to tell - there was no power for the elected members or sarpanches or presidents at the taluka and district levels. A social worker in one of these meetings stated that she saw in a nearby district the zilla parishad president not getting even a seat before the CEO.

The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) is the biggest money spinner in a district. A small district like Latur with a rural population of about 14 lakhs received Rs. 2516.4 lakhs (Rs. 123.87 lakhs yet to come from the State exchequer) in 2000-01. But who controls this DRDA? The palak mantri (Minister in charge of the district) and the CEO. The Minister presides over the sarvochya sabha (general body) and the CEO heads finance and administration as chairman of the working committee.

Micro planning is unheard of in Maharashtra. The planning is outside the purview of the panchayats. The district planning is done by the District Planning and Development Council headed by the palak mantri; the Collector is the next important person - Maharashtra has not constituted the District Planning Committee as per Article 243-ZD.

Asked about corruption among officials dealing with the panchayats, a senior officer in Latur stated that corruption was all pervasive; everybody had a share in it. He blamed the elected representatives for the lack of development in the villages.

Caste being a social reality in Maharashtra, with the upper castes strictly enforcing the subordination of the lower castes, democratic functioning is nowhere in sight in the districts where the case studies were undertaken. In several villages there are no contests during the elections; the upper caste powers-that-be decide who should be their representatives.

From gram sevaks to District CEOs, the panchayats are controlled at three levels. The line departments handle everything. Gram sabhas are seldom held, the `elected' representatives are there just to hear the grievances, receive petitions or sign the certificates. They have no power to act. They have no resources. They must be content with whatever little can be collected by way of tax and the grant they may get through one or two Central schemes.

It is unfortunate that a State like Maharashtra should keep the DRDA outside the purview of panchayats, when several States have already merged it with the panchayats.

Maharashtra's problem is that it has not stirred out of the Balwantrai Mehta Committee report mould. It has not woken up to the spirit of the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution, let alone the Asoka Mehta committee report, whereby panchayats ought to be no more implementing agencies but self-governing institutions.

Maharashtra suffers from the familiar factors which undermine decentralisation of power and genuine democracy - political leadership and bureaucracy. One is reminded of Prof. Dantwala's observation that political leaders, whatever may be their rhetoric, are averse to the idea of decentralisation. This is due to political compulsions to prevent the emergence of rival political forces. So also the bureaucracy.

The Congress-NCP Government must wake up and give real powers to the elected panchayats. Reducing the term of the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti presidents to one year, imposing the two- child norm on panchayat members, declaring on paper that 18 subjects with functions, finance and functionaries are transferred to the panchayats without any action to implement it are fraught with grave dangers.

The people of Maharashtra did not of course expect much from the Shiv Sena-BJP combine as far as strengthening of the panchayat raj was concerned. But with the installation of the Congress-NCP Government, expectations are high. However, the ground realities do not inspire much confidence. Are Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh and Mr. Sharad Pawar listening?

(The writer is Director, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.)

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