State Govt's move on ZPs runs into rough weather

State Govt's move on ZPs runs into rough weather
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NASHIK, OCT 20: The move of the Vilasrao Deshmukh Government to transfer vital departments of the state to the respective Zilla Parishads (ZPs) on the ground of decentralisation of power (apparently to strengthen its support base in local bodies) seems to have run into rough weather. Four ministers and eight MLAs (all tribals) have vehemently opposed the transfer of tribal welfare schemes to the ZPs.

The government has been forced to kept the decision to transfer the tribal and social welfare departments to ZPs in abeyance following strong opposition from MLAs and ministers.

While the government has announced the transfer of several departments like agriculture and rural development to the ZPs, it is yet to take a decision on the transfer of departments like tribal welfare. Twelve tribal MLAs, rising above their political hues, have formed an association,"Adivasi Amdar Mitra Mandal", headed by K C Padvi.

The Mandal has submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh recently, urging him to retain the Tribal Welfare department with the government. They have argued that transferring the Tribal department to the respective ZPs would create more problems than solve the existing ones. The memorandum has pointed out that interference by local politicians, not necessarily tribals, would increase hampering the implementation of tribal welfare schemes.

The members of the Mandal are Cabinet Ministers Surupsingh Naik (Minister for Forests and Environment), Madhukar Pichad (Tribal Development), Shivajirao Moghe (Transport) and Minister of State for Dairy Development Arjun Tulshiram Pawar, K C Padvi, Padmakar Walvi, Vasant Suryavanshi, Krishna Ghoda, Vasant Purke, Dr Vijay Gavit, Vishnu Savra and Ramji Vartha.

The Mandal has cautioned the state government against continuing with its experiments on tribals. It has pointed out that tribals had always been made guinea pigs by people having no understanding of the culture of tribals or their problems.

The mandal has pointed out the constitutional safeguards available to tribals and stated that tribals would not allow themselves to be saddled with policies of non-tribals. The fact is that most of the ZPs are controlled by the Congress and empowering them would ultimately help the party in consolidating its position at the grassroot level.

The previous government headed by Manohar Joshi had in September 1995 attempted to capture Congress controlled ZPs by making ousting of ZP presidents easier. The Joshi government had reduced the requirement for moving a no-confidence motion against a ZP president from one-third of the members to one-fifth. Besides, the requirement of 60 per cent of the members voting in favour of such a motion was reduced to a "simple majority".

The earlier norm of having a span of one year between two such motions (irrespective of whether passed or rejected) was also reduced to six months.

Similar changes were made in rules governing Panchayat Samitis. However, the Shiv Sena-BJP government could not get the results it expected. The Congress-led Democratic Front Government after assuming power took decisions to protect its supporters in local bodies.