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Indirect election of Sarpanches on the anvil
The draft of the new Panchayat Raj Bill proposes sweeping reforms which include indirect election of Sarpanch by ward members of the village. The election of ward members would be on party basis. At present, the election is direct and non-party basis. In the draft Bill, there would be a provision to remove the Sarpanch through a no-confidence motion. The draft Bill favours more powers to Village P
Hyderabad: The draft of the new Panchayat Raj Bill proposes sweeping reforms which include indirect election of Sarpanch by ward members of the village. The election of ward members would be on party basis. At present, the election is direct and non-party basis. In the draft Bill, there would be a provision to remove the Sarpanch through a no-confidence motion. The draft Bill favours more powers to Village Panchayats than now. The officials would be made answerable to the Sarpanch. The ZPs and MPPs would be given more powers for effective functioning.
According to sources, the draft envisages that the Sarpanches would be made responsible for the implementation of various schemes and activities of the government. Penalties would be imposed on them for the failures. Till now, the Sarpanches are elected directly by the voters of the panchayat. There is no provision to remove the Sarpanch in the present Act even if they indulge in irregularities.
The Bill is proposing to hold elections on party symbol basis. The Bill would have provisions including statutory allocation of budget from the state government to the ZPs, MPPs and Gram Panchayats. A separate commission would be set up to oversee devolution of funds to these local governments. It would be made mandatory to transfer various types of fee and other levies to them.
The new Panchayat Raj Bill would also fix the criteria for creation of new Gram Panchayats. It would determine the population, distance between the hamlets, revenue sources and others for forming new panchayats. The sources said the government wants to ensure that the Bill gets the nod of the Assembly in the Budget Session, so that the Act comes into force by end of April and the State Election Commission could hold the elections as per the new stipulations.
The draft has already been submitted to the Chief Secretary and this would be forwarded to the Chief Minister in 10 days for final clearance. The officials will tweak the Bill depending on the Chief Minister’s remarks. The Panchayat Raj officials that the government was keen that the Act is implemented by the end of April so that guidelines for the election of rural local bodies would be in place as per the schedule.
By: NM Satheesh
