Aam Aadmi needs Local Governments not Local Bodies

The slogans of empowerment of ‘Aam Aadmi or Common Man’ remind us of the great RK Laxman who immortalized the common man as a silent witness to the shenanigans of politicians who were supposed to fulfil his dreams and aspirations but belied him on most occasions. While our Aam Aadmi is being appeased with the promises of access to drinking water, 24*7 power and cheaper power bills, ‘swacchta’, CCTV cameras for women’s safety and, corrupt free Government offices, he also has to grapple with the paradoxes of access to school but no learning, hospitals but no healthcare, gizmos but no toilets.

Elections to local governments get little attention from the national and state governments, media and are fraught with delays. In many States, local governments are reduced to the status of ‘local bodies’ without elected governing authorities and instead are directly controlled by the State Governments through departmental functionaries. For instances, in the recent past, ambiguity over Reservations delayed local elections in undivided AP. They were delayed by 3 years which were to be held in 2010-11. We can unequivocally imagine how much furore such apathy in conducting elections at national or state level would have caused. Apart from reservations, delimitation of constituencies is a highly politicized process in most states and are used as a routine excuse for not conducting elections on time. The demand for transferring this function to State Election Commissions has not been heeded to in many states.

Unfortunately, it is more easier to become an MP than a Sarpanch. The eligibility criteria for local level elections such as Two-child norm, Toilets, educational qualifications have set the bar too high for local government elections. For instance, the Rajasthan Govt. promulgated an ordinance stipulating educational qualifications of upto class 10 for candidates contesting for Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti polls and Class 8 for Sarpanch elections. This disqualified more than 80% of the rural population of Rajasthan. Of the incumbent candidates, over 75% Panchayat Samiti candidates and 50% Zila Parishad candidates were held ineligible for the 2015 polls.

Even if the elections are held and the governing bodies constituted, in most states the MPs and MLAs and MLCs are allowed to sit in the local government meetings as ex-officio members hijacking the entire proceedings. Imagine MPs sitting in State Assemblies and trying to dominate the Chief Minister!

Real empowerment of Local Governments

What we need is timely conduct of elections for which delimitation and reservation provisions should be to be given fully to State Election Commissions rather than to the political executive. Participation of Ex-officio members in meetings might seem like a relatively smaller issue but it symbolizes the dominance of State and National politics over local issues. We need to acknowledge that wherever local governments were given the chance to function freely, they prospered and citizens directly and immediately reaped benefits. The success stories of Alandoor in Tamil Nadu, in laying down its sewerage network system and Gangadevipally in Warangal District that tackled water crisis, need to be heard more often across the country.

The Common Man does not want to stay disillusioned anymore and there is a wave of decentralized politics across the nation. Without empowered local governments playing a central role, it is guaranteed that key public issues get merely postponed to another day instead of being resolved fully and effectively.

By: Nikhil Karingula and Md khasimul Asif