Look Beyond MGNREGS
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 14, 2012 -

Under the shadow of a series of corruption charges against the Pradhans and Members of Panchayati Raj Institutions in the state, the 4th General Panchayat Elections, 2012 was underway in the four valley districts of Manipur today (September 13), and honestly, it was nothing short of a funfair, if we may be blunt.

The concept of Panchayati Raj system or local self-government in India may be as old as the birth of its civilization, although it has taken a considerable amount of time to gain prominence and wide acceptance.

The Panchayati Raj system as a democratic means of village governance began as a voluntary practice when some States adopted it as a mode of decentralization of power to the grassroots level in the 1950s and 1960s.

However, it was accorded Constitutional status only on April 24, 1993 through the 73rd Amendment to the Indian Constitution which made it mandatory for the system to be implemented across the country.

The Act aims at providing a 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj constituting of the Village level Panchayat, Block level Panchayat and District level Panchayat in all States having population of over 2 million.

In a nutshell, the system has been put in place with due consideration of the fact that overall development of the country could be possible only through development of its rural areas, which constitute larger chunk of the land mass and where majority of the people reside.

In case of Manipur too, even before the introduction of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, the state experienced Panchayati system of governance since 1964 under the adopted U.P. Panchayat Raj Act, 1947.

The second general elections to the Panchayats were also held under the said Act in 1971 until Manipur enacted its own Panchayati Act in 1975, and thus began a new journey of public participation in the governance right from the grassroots level.

Although lack of infrastructures, funds, non-co-operation of the government departments in sharing power and resistance from local MLAs and Ministers have been hallmark of functioning the Panchayati Raj institutions in the state initially, a lot of changes have taken place following the Constitutional amendment that led to the enactment of Manipur Panchayati Raj, 1994 by the Parliament and the consequent promulgation of an ordinance by the State Government to facilitate the conduct of 4th General Panchayat Election, 2012.

As we have stated earlier, the conduct of the Panchayat election this time was nothing short of a funfair and the expenses that every candidate may have poured is simply unthinkable.

Though we don't have any concrete evidences to prove that, talks are doing the round of notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 flying thick and fast to woo the voters.

In such a scenario, the allegations of misusing the sanctioned developmental funds by elected Pradhans and Members should not be a surprise to anyone.

In fact, public have lost count on the number of Pradhans and Members who have been slapped with arrest warrants over alleged charges of misusing funds provided for rural development under Centrally sponsored schemes, specially MGNREGS, simply because it is one such scheme where there is direct public participation in its implementation.

There may be many more skeletons in the closet for other centrally sponsored schemes for rural development as well.

So, the state government should understand that setting out to formulate guidelines for implementation of MGNREGS alone would not do the trick, if it really wants to ensure rural development and lives up to the spirit of Panchayati Raj.