Rural bodies head to administrators

TT, Aug 16, 2018, Calcutta: The Mamata Banerjee government will be forced to appoint administrators to run a large number of gram panchayats as five year tenure of the rural bodies would start expiring from Thursday.

Sources in the panchayat department said that all 3,300 rural bodies in the lowest tier of the panchayat system would expire between August 16 and 29.

Formation of new boards in a majority of the gram panchayats would not be possible as the Supreme Court is yet to deliver its judgment on 34 per cent seats where elections were not held.

"Only 1,638 out of 3,300 gram panchayats can be formed as elections were held in all seats in these bodies. Future of the rest of the boards will depend on the apex court verdict. As the verdict is yet to come, the department will be forced to appoint administrators to the run the boards where at least one candidate has won uncontested," said an official.

The panchayat department has already issued a notification asking the district magistrates to deploy block development officers to run the gram panchayats where new boards could not be formed after expiry of the existing boards.

"We will get some time for two higher tiers of boards as panchayat samiti boards will have to be formed by September 9 and zilla parishad boards by September 13. We expect a judgement by the apex court by that time, but in case of gram panchayats, we have to appoint administrators from Thursday," said an official.

In East Midnapore, the term of 221 gram panchayats out of 223 ends on Thursday. On Wednesday, the district panchayat and rural development office has instructed all the outgoing chiefs of these rural bodies to hand over charges to administrators appointed by the respective block development officers.

East Midnapore officials said out of the 221 gram panchayats, several seats in 121 panchayats went uncontested. In the remaining 100 seats, the government has issued notification that rural boards will be formed on August 24.

Sources said appointing administrators to run rural boards leaves any government in an uncomfortable situation.

Rural populace largely depends on gram panchayats to get several facilities like income certificates or residential certificates, which help them secure several government facilities, including free treatment at government-run health care establishments.

Besides, development projects take a hit in absence of elected panchayat members.

"The situation got critical for the ruling party as the Lok Sabha polls are approaching. If people face problems due to absence of an elected body in gram panchayats, the ruling party faces uncomfortable questions," said a source.

Additional reporting by Anshuman Phadikar