A ticklish law that raises many eyebrows

Hyderabad: Not much educational qualifications they boast of, yet they bracketed their villages in the elite group that have made news on developmental front, and perhaps dotted them on the world map as well.

Now they stand a prime example to raise a pertinent question on the legitimacy of the enactment of Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Act 2015 by the Haryana Government mandating minimum educational qualification as a prerequisite for the candidates contesting panchayat elections.

Since it became a panchayat in 1994, Gangadevipally, a tiny village on the suburbs of Warangal city, which has been a beacon of development to many a village across the country, besides catching the eye of no less 77 nations, including the US, Canada and China, is being represented by public representatives who didn’t even succeed to get past the schooling.

In fact, the present sarpanch Itta Shanthi is a Class IV dropout while her predecessor Kusam Rajamouli had studied Class IX. Before them, Kusam Lalitha, a two-time sarpanch of the village between 1995 and 2006, is an illiterate.

Notwithstanding this fact, the development in this village has been a neighbour’s envy for over two decades now. To name a few… Besides being an alcohol-free village, Gangadevipally had achieved 100 per cent success in sanitation, toilets, CC roads, education, family planning, life insurance and tax collection. The village has no ATM but has an Any Time Water (ATW) kiosk that caters to the protected drinking water needs of the villagers.

Speaking to The Hans India, 28-year-old sarpanch Shanthi said: “Though it’s difficult to understand the processes of the government, it’s not a big deal. We work like a cohesive unit. Hence, my academic limitations didn’t bother me.”

Former sarpanch Kusam Rajamouli and his wife Lalitha, who between them served as sarpanch for over 15 years, said that “all that we need is a strong will to do something for the community in which we live”.

Rajamouli, a recipient of many awards, who even had visited France, Sri Lanka and Nepal to deliver lectures on community development programmes, said: “The legislation brought in by the Haryana and Rajasthan governments will have a direct impact on Dalits and other backward sections.”

On the other hand, Ankapur village under Armoor mandal in Nizamabad district has also earned accolades for its effective agricultural practices. The village is well-known for adopting modern farming methods in cultivating commercial crops. Even the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had umpteen number of times referred in his speeches that every village should compete with Ankapur.

“When MPs and legislators have no such rider on the basis of educational qualifications, why a sarpanch or other local body members need to comply such prerequisites,” former sarpanch and vice-sarpanch of the village Perkit Ravi and Satyavva Ravi said.

It may be mentioned here that the Supreme Court recently upheld the legislation brought in by the Haryana mandating minimum educational qualification as a prerequisite for the candidates contesting panchayat elections. According to the new law, SSC is required for a general male candidate, middle pass for a general woman candidate and for Scheduled Caste (SC) male candidate. A SC woman candidate needs Class V pass to contest.