Jharkhand passes Panchayati Raj Bill, fails to convince skeptics

Jharkhand passes Panchayati Raj Bill, fails to convince skeptics
MANOJ PRASAD

RANCHI, MARCH 30: The Jharkhand Assembly on Friday approved the Jharkhand Panchayat Raj Bill, 2001. A voice vote of all 44 members of the treasury bench passed the Bill as not a single Opposition MLA was present in the 82-member House.

The Opposition was boycotting proceedings to protest against what Leader of the Opposition Stephen Marandi described as ``partisan conduct of the Speaker''. Asked for his reaction on the passage of the Bill, Marandi, who has been demanding for panchayat polls all along, said: ``How can we comment when we have not read the Bill as yet.''

But Chief Minister Babulal Marandi boasted that by ensuring safe passage to the Bill, he had paved the way for panchayat polls in the state. ``It will fulfil the aspirations of the people and lead to their empowerment at the grassroot level,'' Marandi said while lauding the Bill inside the House.

Outside the Assembly, Ram Kumar Tirkey, an Advocate who had come to witness the proceeding in the House, expressed pessimism about panchayat polls: ``The Assembly has done its job by accepting the Bill. But if any of its clauses is questioned in the court, panchayat polls may be put on hold, like it happened in Bihar.''

In Jharkhand, which was part of Bihar till November 15, the Panchayat poll has not been held since 1976. The Bill, which was tabled by state Rural Development Minister Pradeep Yadav, envisages a three-tier system of village administration -- panchayats at the village, panchayat samitis at the block level and zila parishad at the district level. These bodies, comprising the elected mukhiya, sub-mukhia and sarpanch etc, will be common for the Panchayat system for both the general and the scheduled (tribal) areas of the state as per the Government of India's Panchayat Raj Act (1992) and the Provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to the scheduled Areas) Act, 1996.

In view of these Acts, the state government's Bill makes the provision of two types of panchayats -- one for the general area and a second for the scheduled area. In the first type, the Bill provides a provision of reservation not exceeding 50 per cent of panchayat posts for the members of SCs, STs and OBCs.

But for panchayats in scheduled areas, the Bill provides fo reservation which will be determined by the number of the SCs and STs viz-a-viz the total population of the panchayat, not exceeding 80 per cent for the members belonging to the former category.

As per the Sub0section 1 and 2 of the Bill, one third of the total posts in the panchayats will be reserved for the women belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes.

Notably, while the mukhiya of the panchayat in the scheduled area will be a tribal, he will not preside over the panchayat at the village level. This responsibility will be carried out by the traditional tribal chieftains. Another feature of the Bill is that a mukhiya, once elected, will not be eligible to contest for a second term.