The ‘phenomenon’ of auctioning the post of president of village panchayats appears to be back in full force, ever since the process of filing of nomination papers in the elections to rural local bodies in 27 districts began on Monday.
In the last five days, there have been reports of how the ‘phenomenon’ occurred in Panaikulam panchayat, Pennagaram block of Dharmapuri district, for about ₹ 25 lakh; Thirumangalakottai (East), Orathanadu of Thanjavur for ₹32 lakh; Athanakurichi, Mudukulathur of Ramanathapuram for ₹21 lakh and Nadukuppam, Panruti of Cuddalore for ₹50 lakh.
The modus operandi is that groups of people, said to belong to dominant communities in the given village panchayats, hold “informal gram sabha meetings” and ask the aspiring candidates for the post to deposit the prescribed amounts with them. “Often, the money so collected is set apart for corpus created for the development of local temples,” says G. Palanithurai, an expert in issues concerning Panchayat Raj. There is a perception that the State’s principal political parties — the AIADMK and the DMK — are not vociferous in condemning such cases.
In respect of Nadukuppam, the candidate concerned has denied the report regarding the auctioning.
District Collector V. Anbuselvan went on record saying that the administration will take “stringent action” in such instances. But panchayat activists and public spirited individuals feel the message from the authorities should have been much stronger.
Sumathi Chidambaranathan, former president of Adigathur Village Panchayat, Tiruvallur district, blames the district-level officials for their “laxity or indifference” as such practices are nothing new to the State. Had they been alert, visited troublesome village panchayats and advised people, the "auctioning" could have been averted, she says. This practice seems to be prevalent only in panchayats where the president’s posts are reserved for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
‘Electoral malpractice’
Pointing out that the “auctioning” of the posts should be considered an electoral malpractice, Santha Sheela Nair, former civil servant, who headed the departments of Municipal Administration, Water Supply and the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj between 2001 and 2006, says “more than the district-level officers, the State Election Commissioner should come down heavily, conduct enquiries and ban these people from contesting in the polls.
If he gets the elections declared in such cases null and void or disqualified those responsible, this will have an immediate impact and prevent it from escalating further.”
Responding to reports, R. Palaniswamy, State Election Commissioner, said the panel had been urging the District Collectors to pursue them closely and take punitive action. “We have told them to deal with sternly against all those who indulge in such activities. Our instruction to them is to have the cases filed both under the Indian Penal Code and the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act. In some districts, including Virudhunagar, FIRs have been filed,” he added.
