The Works

| 2002 |

Male panchas deny eves their role in panchayats

If male panchas have conspired to seize power in the panchayat, they will even go to the extent of taking charge of the sarpanch’s post which has been reserved for women.

In an peculiar situation, attempts to ensure women reservation to the post of sarpanch collapsed in two of the 189-odd panchayats in the state.

In the first case, the three male panchas in the five-member panchayat vetoed moves to allow a woman become the sarpanch, while in the second case, the male dominated panchas thwarted attempts to have a stable woman sarpanch.

In both cases, male deputy sarpanchas eventually ruled the two panchayats for over half of the entire term.

Caught unawares, authorities are now probing the possibility of amending the law to ensure that women are given their rightful power in the panchayats reserved to be headed by them.

The first of the two instances took place in the tiny village of Advalpal, which comprises five wards and with the lowest number of voters (1,105) in Bicholim Taluka.

Sneha U Gurav was elected as sarpanch, since the post was reserved for women in the 1997 elections.

After serving for a year, a no-confidence motion was moved against Gurav by the 3 male members of the panchayat — Premanand Salgaonkar, Ashok Naik and Ragunath Gaunkar — on June 22, 1998.

The only other woman panch, Namrata Gaunkar, filled her nomination, which was proposed by Gurav.

Then, something unusual happened which caught the law makers, advocating women empowerment, by surprise.

Sheer statictics eluded her of the top post, as Namrata was unable to get another panch to second her claim to the post of sarpanch.

Authorities convened as many as six meetings in July ‘98 August ‘98, November ‘98, December ‘98, April 2000 and May 2000, but the three male members insulated themselves from any split in the group.

Unable to break the deadlock, the deputy sarpanch was given temporary charge to run the panchayats.

In effect, deputy sarpanch Premanand Salgaonkar ruled the panchayat with ‘temporary’ charge for three years and six months.

When contacted, Advalpal acting sarpanch Premanand Salgaonkar explained that a no-confidence motion was passed against Sneha because she was not consulting other members while taking a decision.

“She was ruled by her husband and other family members,” retorted Salgaonkar.

When asked about the developmental works, Salgaonkar claimed that no work was undertaken during the tenure of Sneha.

“It was only after I was given the charge, that a new panchayt building was constructed,” said Salgaonkar.

Denying charges that he was avoiding the elections, the acting sarpanch insisted that the women panchas themselves were absent on the scheduled date of elections.

But when asked to comment on women reservation at Advalpal and Namrata’s willingness to be sarpanch, Salgaonkar came down heavily on Government’s policies.

“The Government cannot force us to vote for any one of the women candidates, only because they have this provision,” snapped Salgaonkar. “It is an individual’s discretion to vote or not to vote”.

Speaking to Herald, Namrata, who made six futile attempts to secure her appointment as sarpanch, was still in favour of the government’s policy of reservation for women.

“But due to majority of males in panchayats, it has turned useless,” Namrata lamented.

Namrata admitted that developmental works during Sneha’s tenure was minimal, but insisted that this was because they were in power for a very time.

“The acting sarpanch has concentrated only on his ward and we are totally neglected,” complained Namrata. “Our attempts were purposely scotched, whenever we tried to put forward our demands.”

Another panch, Ashok Naik, alleged that Sneha had illegally issued a birth certificate to one of her relatives originally from Mumbai, which sparked off the no-confidence motion against her.

“Her husband’s involvement in panchayat matters and illegal activities were the main reason behind her ouster,” claimed Ashok.

“Namrata never consulted us before filing her nomination, so there was no point in supporting her”, he added.

“There are developments going on in Advalpal,” insisted the panch, “without any ministers support and we appreciate it.”

Like all others, Ashok supported women’s reservation, but only with an educational criteria being made compulsory.

Attempts were made to contact Sneha Gurav, ex-sarpanch of Advalpal, who disclosed that she had totally lost faith in the panchayat elections and the government’s move on women reservation.

On the pretext that her children were crying in the other room, Sneha denied to comment any further on the situation.

Gaunkar, an elderly person from Advalpal, disclosed that the three male panchas had orchestrated the move to grab power in the panchayat, by initially supporting Sneha.

“Until, you have a sarpanch you cannot elect a deputy sarpanch” he explained, adding that the support to Sneha was only an eye-wash to seek power.

By sheer coincidence, a similar dilemma was to take shape in another village panchayat in the adjoining taluka of Ponda.

The post of sarpanch may have been reserved for women in Betki-Khandola panchayat, but the male panchas had other plans.

Eventually, the deputy sarpanch ruled the village for nearly half of the five-year term.

Swati Talekar was elected sarpanch of Betki-Khandola on January 25, 1997 and went on to serve as sarpanch till her ouster on April 5, 1999, moved by four panchayat members.

Prakash Shet, former sarpanch of the panchayat, was then deputy sarpanch, and had allegedly masterminded the ouster of Swati.

Later, Suvidha Haldankar was elected sarpanch on June 29, 1999. However, Suvidha’s joy was to last only a few hours, as she had to face no-confidence motion notice the same day.

Suvidha held charge of the office for only 15 days, before relinquishing charge.

Since then, the panchayat has been run by deputy sarpanch Prakash Shet, who enjoyed the support of three panchas in the seven-member panchayat.

When contacted, panch Gopal Gaonkar expressed satisfaction over the performance of Prakash Shet.

“He initiated the construction of a `manas’ in Khandola at a cost of Rs 11 lakhs and also at Betki,” informs Gopal.

However, residents were less enthusiastic of the power games played by the male panchas.

“Male panchas tried to discourage female panchas from running the panchayat,” complained one resident.

The domination of male panchas in a panchayat reserved for women sarpanchas has been amplified in the taluka.

The post of women sarpanchas were reserved in the panchayats of Bandora, Kundaim, Curti-Khandepar and Betoda-Nirankal.

However, Betoda-Nirankal was the only panchayat to encounter stability, as sarpanch Usha V Prabhu managed to complete her full tenure.

Other panchayats witnessed a number of changes. In Bandora, Vasudha Kerkar served as sarpanch for only seven months (January 1, 1997 to August 22, 1997), followed by Nalini Mulvi, who held power till October 21, 2001.

At present, deputy sarpanch Pratap Fadte enjoys the power as acting sarpanch.

In Kundaim, Pratibha Kundaikar served as sarpanch for less than a third of the full tenure (January 25, 1997 to June 1, 1998), followed by Anita Anand Naik, who ruled for only two months (June 1, 1998 to August 10, 1998).

Pratibha Kundaikar took over as sarpanch from September 8, 1998 and has managed to hang on in power since then.

In Curti-Khandepar, Sunita Gaude was sarpanch from January 25, 1997 to January 31, 2000, only to be replaced by Suman Narayan Naik on February 15, 2000.

Later, Suman was ousted on June 18, 2001 and the post was filled by Rukma Khandeparkar on July 17, 2001, who has been the sarpanch since then.

(With inputs from Sameer Umarye and Durganand Naik)

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