Hardly a
month is completed and some members of some Panchayats especially the
Sarpanchas and other members of the ruling factions started looting and acting
as feudal lords in some of the Panchayats in our areas. They have started demanding without any shame
bribe for the services rendered by the Panchayats. As per my observation, those Panchayat
Members who are involved in such bribe extortion are belonging to the lower
grade of the society with third grade family background and whose parents have failed
to inculcate a sense of dignified discipline
in them. They are brought up at their homes like “Chor and Bamtte”. For
this reason they are committing such dirty acts.
There was a time during the Portuguese rule in Goa when our
village affairs were administered by a one man village body called Regidores who used to control the
village affairs very systematically. He was selected by the higher authority on
the basis of his character, educational background, discipline, morality and
the knowledge of the subject he would handle.
However, now we have Panchayats comprising around 10 members and
still we cannot put the village affairs on the right track? Why this inefficiency? It is only because of the greed for illicit
money extorted as bribe from the villagers by the elected members. The next 5 years are going to be very bad for
us. Normally it is not easy to get your work done in your Panchayat unless you
pay as bribe to the Panchayat which amount then distributed to all the members,
the bigger share goes to the Sarpanch.
For this reason there is so much of pressure to get elected in the
Panchayat. And precisely because of this illicit money collection, Panchayat
members are become rich within a very short time. I see this evidence with my
own eyes in front of my own shadow. Otherwise, how they can build bungalows,
restaurants, hotels and purchase expensive cars? What is their salaries they get from the Panchayats? Below my nose there are so many of them who
fall into this category. They don’t even have shame to mingle in society when
people call them as “Chors”. Many of such chors are daily Church goers and also recipients of holy communion.
The other malady
afflicted to our Panchayats is the interference of the husbands of their
elected member wives mainly on the basis of their reserved quota for
females. These husbands act not only as
“de facto” spokesmen of their wives in official dealings but also as”de
jure”. How low our democracy has stooped
because of the low grade category of our low grade elected members. These husbands are wielding
more powers than their elected wives. Their
only motto is to acquire power and illicit money if necessary even by selling
and supplying their wives to the customers. And how this type of activities are
functioning without a warning from the higher authority is itself a big
question mark. In view of what I said
above, are we worthy of this democracy which is converted into a mockery by our
politicians, common men and political leaders?
A.Veronica Fernandes.
