Local bodies ditched again by both AIADMK, DMK

Local body governance has found no place in the manifestos, released on Tuesday, of either party. 

CHENNAI: The Dravidian majors— the opposition DMK and governing AIADMK—while fighting for devolution of powers to the State, have done little to devolve powers to local bodies. Indeed, local body governance has found no place in the manifestos, released on Tuesday, of either party. 

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1993 provided a constitutional backing for panchayati raj, or local self-governance and providing for devolution of powers and responsibilities to local bodies. However, the devolution is left to discretion of States. There are 29 subjects which States may devolve to panchayats. 

Local bodies play a crucial role in fulfilling the day-to-day needs of citizens -- drinking water, street lights, road connectivity to their residential area, garbage cleaning and others. However, due to the reluctance of both parties to empower local bodies, they end up depending on the State government for addressing even basic issues. 

The first local body polls in Tamil Nadu, after the Act was passed, were held in 1996 under the DMK government of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The DMK government made two significant contributions to local governance, by providing 33 per cent reservation for women and 20 per cent reservation for Dalits. However, activists argue that this is the sum total of the either party’s efforts towards empowering local bodies. The reason, they say, is that both parties preferred to keep power centralised in Fort St George, while also using local bodies politically, when required. 

For instance, DMK president M K Stalin’s political grooming included a stint as Mayor of the Chennai Corporation- the first to be directly elected to the post in 1996. He was made minister for rural administration and local administration in 2006, a recognition of the importance of the local bodies in building a political base.

“The State government should give the power of issuing death, birth and income certificates to village panchayats. All beneficiaries of State and Central government schemes should be identified by the village panchayats. The registration for crop insurance and assessment of damage should also be done by the village panchayat which will know every person in the panchayat. The State and Central governments should implement schemes in he villages only after getting consent of the village panchayats like how the Centre gets the State’s consent to execute schemes in a state,” GS Govindasamy, a former village panchayat president of Moottampatti near Andakulam in Pudukkottai district, said, adding that various representations on these issues had been made to the State government by the association of village panchayat presidents over the years, but in vain.

A Adhappan, managing director, Rose, an NGO, who is studying the devolution of powers to village panchayats, said according to their study political parties did not want the village panchayats become too strong. “As per our study and opinions of various village panchayats, the bigger political parties don’t want to offer power to villages as they want to prevent the village panchayat administrations from becoming too strong. The parties, which are able to capture power in the state, want to dilute the powers of village panchayats to keep them in their place,” he said. 

“All the permissions for the village panchayat works should be cleared in a single window scheme within a week and every village panchayat should get an annual finance allocation under infrastructure development funds based on the population and area to carry out development works without waiting for the state government to allocate funds,” a former union president said. However, none of these demands is on the agenda of the Dravidian majors.

Contributions to local governance

The first local body polls in TN, after the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act was passed, were held in 1996 under the DMK government. The DMK government made two significant contributions to local governance, by providing 33 per cent reservation for women and 20 per cent reservation for Dalits. However, activists argue that this is the sum total of the either party’s efforts towards empowering local bodies. The reason, they say, is that both parties preferred to keep power centralised in Fort St George, while also using local bodies politically, when required.

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