New Delhi, April 25: With social activist Anna Hazare taking the lead in launching a campaign against corruption, the Government does not want to be lag behind on empowering gram sabhas, which is another pet subject of the Gandhian.
Both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday came out in favour of gram sabhas playing a greater role in social audit of various schemes like MNREG to check graft.
Addressing the sarpanch and village pradhans at a function organised to mark the enactment of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 which institutionalised panchayati raj, Singh admitted that there is long way to go for bringing decentralisation. However, he assured that the Government is considering increasing the capacity of panchayats to ensure effective participation of the people in governance.
Sonia said gram sabhas should have power for social audit of all schemes and it has a special role in the monitoring of MNREGS. She stressed the need for holding regular meetings of gram sabhas and women and deprived sections must participate in them to place their views.
The NAC chairperson felt that full benefits of the welfare programmes of the Government will reach people only when the Panchayati Raj institutions are strengthened. The UPA Chairperson said the main purpose of Panchayati Raj is self-governance, which is the last stage of democracy to which “we all are committed.”
Meanwhile, an official reminded the top leadership of the country that the eleventh plan was not panchayat friendly and urged them to make the 12th Plan more panchayat friendly. This unusual display of frankness was done by Panchayati Raj Secretary ANP Sinha while giving the vote of thanks. Asking the Prime Minister to give more focus to Panchayati raj in the 12th plan, he requested Sonia to list the issue as the next agenda for the National Advisory Council.
While both Singh and Sonia remained silent when Sinha made the requests in presence of Panchayati Raj Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, his predecessor Mani Shankar Aiyar agreed with the contention that the 11th five year plan was not Panchayat friendly and advocated that a new committee should be set up to suggest how the 12th plan can focus on it.
Earlier, Hazare had launched a campaign from 1998 to 2006 for greater power to the gram sabhas so that villagers have a say in the development work which had forced the Maharashtra Government to amend the Gram Sabha Act. The social activist has even recently demanded that Gram Sabha should be empowered and must have regular meetings so as to check corruption at the grassroot level while proposed Lokpal Bill should curb graft at the higher level.
——–Agencies