In a move that could have far reaching consequences for the most basic democratic institutions, the Punjab government on Wednesday quietly issued an ordinance that omits Section 19 of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act (1994) which gives elected members of any village panchayat the power to pass a vote of no confidence to remove a “corrupt” or “no-performing” sarpanch
.
“With this amendment (ordinance?), now the panches in the gram panchayats will not be able to remove the sarpanch through ‘no-confidence motion’ and also can not hold any meeting with such motive” an official state government communiqué proclaimed.
Interestingly, a spokesman of the Panchayati Raj department claimed the step had been “contemplated in the larger public interest as the right granted under Section 19 was misused in some gram panchayats.” The official further contended that the practice of ousting sarpanches had promoted “groupism” in villages while “creating hurdles in the completion of development works.”
However, the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission, which had in fact sought to strengthen democratic functioning in village panchayats and had recently recommended withdrawing bureaucratic powers to fire democratically elected panches and sarpanches, has expressed surprise at today’s ordinance.
“The discussion was on the omission of Section 20 which accords civil servants the right to suspend panches and was subject to misuse under political pressure,” commission chairman Pramod Kumar told this newspaper.
He agreed that any move to dilute the powers of elected panchayat members was tantamount to weakening democracy.