Panchayat poll: more losses than gains

Politics does not always pay. This perhaps has been the bitter lesson that the political parties have learnt in the just concluded panchayat elections. They have lost more and there is hardly any gain for anybody.

All the three political parties, the ruling BJP and the opposition parties, the Congress and the JDS had equal share in the undue political hype raised over the polls. . Though the elections to the second and third tiers of the three tier panchayat system, have hardly any bearing on the continuance or otherwise of the party government in power, it was portrayed as if the panchayat poll would be the decider.

It was the Congress and the JDS which set the ball rolling. Both launched a vitriolic campaign braying for the blood of scam tainted Yeddyurappa government. The voters the leaders of the two parties maintained would “surely teach” a lesson to the BJP government.

On the other hand, Mr. Yeddyurappa once again exhibited his propensity for breast beating and ordained that the voters would give a fitting reply to his carping critics and staked the performanance of his more than two year old government for seeking a renewed mandate from the rural voters.

The campaign was shrill to the core. The Congress, which got a new state president, a couple of months, roped in the high fly national leader Gulam Nabi Azad. The two members, father and son team of the JDS’ “national” leadership Messrs Devegowda the former Prime Minister and Mr. Kumaraswarmy bore the brunt of the no holds barred political campaign. And for the BJP, the Chief Minister Mr. Yeddyurappa stomped the districts in a bid to woo the voters. There was nothing unusual in the blandishments offered to the voters, since it has become an integral part of the present day election campaign.

What ultimately happened came as anticlimax to the hype raised. There was no improvement at all. Each of them had their own share of setbacks. The expectations of the political parties that the voters would either “teach a lesson” or give “suitable reply” had been totally belied. The political parties today are happier over the discomfiture of the others than worry about their own share of humiliation.

What happened was that rural voters ignored both and went in their own non- chalet way in expressing their opinion. This was something to what they had done in 2008 election. They preferred BJP but held back their hand to deny the half way mark both in terms of the control of the zilla and taluk panchayats and also in number of seats won and kept the two others far behind.

Of the 30 zilla panchayats, the BJP gained control of 12, four each went to Congress and handed down fractured verdict in the remaining ten. In the 178 taluk panchayats also, the practically the same trend emerged. Of the 176 taluk panchayats, BJP gained could gain control of 68, Congress 31, the BJP 29, and instability stares at 48 remaining taluk panchayats.

BJP as the party in power was expected to put up a good show to control over the majority of the zilla and taluk panchayats, going by the track record of elections held previously. This did not happen. It was four short of the halfway mark in the zilla panchayats and twenty short of the half way mark in the taluk panchayats. Its only consolation has been that as against one ZP it had controlled in 2005, it had captured twelve now. In terms of seats, as against 145 it had bagged last time, its tally has gone up to 441 in the zilla panchayats.

What ever the brave face its leaders may put, the fact that the party had to huff and puff in the Chief Ministers. home district of Shimoga and the Reddy brothers’ bastion of Bellary cannot be hidden at all. It had also to live with the humiliation of not being able to open the account in two districts of Mandya and Ramnagar.

As for as Congress is concerned, the elections have shown that the party has been slowly losing its hold in the rural areas. While the BJP has been foraying into the Congress pockets of Northern Karnataka, the JDS has been doing the same in the Old Mysore areas. The number of Congress controlled zilla panchayats has come down from 22 to 4 and the number of seats has come down from 493 to 353. The party has to live with the mortification that in the home district of the state president, it has been drubbed very badly.

While JDS is happy that it is on par with the national party like Congress in the number of zilla panchayats won, the fact cannot be hidden that its influence remain confined too few pockets of the vokkaliga dominated Old Mysore districts including the home district of Hassan of Mr. Devegowda. Compared to 2005, the party has suffered erosion of seats, which has come down from 273 to 180. The party has not been able to win a single seat in eight districts.

If only the electoral strategy were to be evolved with little imagination, with the political parties, addressing themselves to the core issues bothering the minds of the rural voters, than go all out for political aggrandizement at the expense of the voters, addressing themselves to core issues bothering the minds of the rural people instead of haranguing them bout their own plans of seeking political aggrandizement through panchayat poll, they could have shaped better in catching the imagination of the rural voters.

The parties went about their political campaign forgetting the fact that the smaller the constitutuencies, the lesser has been the impact of the politics and what matters in these small territorial constituencies, is the personal standing and interplay of castes.

As a matter of fact none of the parties, referred to empowerment of the panchayat raj institutions and how they would improve the delivery system in reaching the benefits of the people or strengthening the financial base of these institutions, which are reeling under the impact of a centralized administrative system as yet in the name of decentralisation.

Eom 1903 hrs. 05.0111

Decentralisation and urban local bodies

It is nearly two decades ever since constitutional safeguards were provided to the urban and rural local bodies, in a bid to decentralise the administration for effectively reaching the fruits of development to the people at the grass root level. albeit with their active participation. The principle was that the local people should be involved in the decision making process designed to meet their felt needs rather than somebody sitting far away doing the same.

But it has turned out to be a mirage. While one could see some progress in activating the panchayat system to meet the rural needs, it has practically been a non starter as for the urban local bodies are concerned. With the trend in the urbanization increasing the prognosis is not something which is palatable.

The irony is that the constitution is amended to provide safeguards to these local bodies, enabling legislations have also been made in some cases. But the problem, which has proved too insurmountable at the moment, has been the typical mindset on the part of administrators, political or bureaucratic who are singularly averse to the concept of sharing power, a legacy which the country has inherited from the colonial days.

Another tragedy has been that while there has been discussion in the past at one stage or other about improving the delivery system in the rural areas, such debate has been practically absent as for as the urban areas is concerned. And the urbanites remain totally insulated from whatever is happening in their domain and have hardly raised their voice to get their due guaranteed by the Constitution through the famous 74^th Constitutional amendment act – C A A.

The part lXA of the Constitution dealing with Municipalities (from Article 243P to Article 243ZG , including the Twelfth Schedule) lays down clearly as to what should be done to bring about the decentralisation and the functions and responsibilities entrusted to the urban bodies under the new dispensation planned.

It provides among other things for a two tier system of the municipal council and the ward committees for the municipality having a population of more than three lakhs (Art243S), (while a three tier system has been envisaged for the panchayats): the constitution of District Planning Committee for consolidation of the plans prepared by the panchayats and the municipalities in a district for preparing a draft development plan for the district as a whole and a separate planning committee for the metropolitan areas (Art.243ZE).

As for the functions are concerned, the Constitution requires the state legislatures are required to enact enabling legislations, to endow municipalities with such powers ad authority require4d to enable them to function as the institution of self government and responsibilities for the preparation of plans for economic development and social justice and performance of functions and the implementation of the schemes as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to the matter listed out in the twelfth schedule (Art.243W). A Finance Commission is to be constituted for distribution of net proceeds of taxes and others leviable by the state and to deal with allied matters (Art. 243Y).

But all these provisions have either remained in the statute books or if implemented they have remained on paper, making a no worthwhile addition to improve the ground level situation in the municipalities.

In Karnataka, the two tier system of the urban local bodies has not come into existence at all. Most of the municipalities continue to persist with a single tier system. No ward committees with elected members have been constituted at all. . The provision pertaining to the nomination of persons having special knowledge or experience in municipal administration (Art.243R(2)(ii) ) has been grossly abused as an instrument for distributing political patronage than as an instrument designed to finetune the working of the municipal bodies.

What is more galling is the manner in which the State Government has turned all the municipal bodies into subservient bodies as for the finances are concerned. Ever since the Devaraj Urs government bamboozled the municipal bodies to agree to the abolition of the octroi during the emergency, all the municipalities in Karnataka have become totally dependent on the state government for the doles. The alternative arrangement planned by the state government for the abolition of octroi has not proved to be a viable arrangement at all. When the governments finances are in the doldrums, how it be expected to help the municipalities to come out of the red. At the moment, property tax has been the only independent source of income, which is not adequate even to meet the salary bill.

Had the octroi been allowed to continue, it would have made the municipalities financially independent by the manner in which the volume of commercial activities has galloped over the decades and would have enabled them to plan for the development on their own without waiting for the doles from the government. Even now it is not too late to retrace the step. Unless the financial stability is assured, no municipality will be able to meet the aspirations of the people living in its area.

The twelfth schedule of the Constitution, which lists out the subjects, which come under the purview of the municipalities. Under this, urban planning including the town planning should come under the purview of the municipalities. But no move has been made to entrust the urban local bodies with this function. The State government for reasons known to it has allowed the separate entities like the urban development authorities constituted for various municipalities to exist and continue to perform the function, which should have been done by the municipalities. Besides, most of the Urban Development Authorities barring the BDA have no legal local standi, since they are the creation of executive orders of the government. And the money raked by these bodies, remains out of the reach of the municipalities. This arrangement has been persisted only as an avenue for handing out political patronage.

The constitution of the State Finance Commission to improve the finances of the urban bodies has hardly made the impact mainly because of the lackadaisical approach of the state governments. Two State Finance Commissions have given reports already and the report given by the third Commission has been pending with the state government for more than year. The State Government busy as it is in surviving from one crisis to another has been sleeping over the report. On the eve of the panchayat elections, which are just concluded, the state government woke up to say that it would take action on it and has not said anything on why it remained silent all these days.

The provision regarding the constitution of the DPCs for the districts and MPC for the metropolitan proposal also remain on paper, while the government officially claims that it has been implemented. (The claim was made even when Mr. M Y Ghorpade was the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj). During the days of the Janata Dal government, when Mr. M P Prakash was the Minister for Rural Development, elections were held for choosing the members from the various municipal and rural bodies to the DPCs and then the matter was dropped all of a sudden. These bodies have not been constituted at all.

In nutshell one can say that the responsibility of not developing the municipalities as real local self government institutions, as the Constitution had laid down squarely rests on the state government. For its own reasons, the state government has turned them into vassals and has come in the way of their being developed as vibrant local self institutions.

Unfortunately, the municipal bodies are not conscious of what is being denied to them deliberately by the government. The main reason for the lack of interest or awareness has been the policy of the government in keeping the tenure of municipal chief as one year. Busy as they are in attending the reception on their assumption of office and participating in the farewell functions while demitting office, none of the municipal chiefs have any time to devote to ponder over what they are missing in the process. The proposal to either give a full five year term to the Mayor , by going for direct election and creating a Mayor-in-Council arrangement, which would give primacy to the elected body over the executive has fallen on deaf ears.

If the constitutionally elected government is a party to the gross transgression of the constitutional provisions, where should the appeal lie? This has been the tragedy, which we are witnessing in Karnataka today.

-0-A 4.01.11