The Hindu : Other States / Bihar News : By-election for Bihar panchayat in November

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Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

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By-election for Bihar panchayat in November

PATNA, OCT. 15. The Bihar Election Commissioner D.P. Maheshwari today announced that by-elections to vacant seats in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system will be held on November 25 and 28 next.

Poll notification will be issued on October 20 and polling, wherever necessary, will be held on November 25 and 28, he said adding polling will however, be conducted in Saran district on November 23 and 28 due to holding of Sonepur fair.

Mr. Maheshwari said elections to the newly constituted Nagar Panchayat of Dumara and Janakpur will be held soon. The Bihar Panchayat election was held in 2001.

Following is the breakup of vacant seats Gram panchayat member-3,186, Mukhiya-112, Panchayat samiti members-178 and Zila Parishad members-26.

Effective devolution to panchayats required political will and commitment at the State level, Rajasekharan said.

Unfortunately, empowerment of Panchayati Raj bodies had come to be ``personally driven'', he said, adding, administrative powers, functions, and finances had been devolved where a Chief Minister was supportive, if not, panchayats had remained weak.

The issues of reservations, rotation of seats, social inclusion and concerns of women had still not been settled and the question of whether panchayat elections should be fought on party or non-party lines still remained unresolved.

Expressing concern over the increasing use of money and muscle power in Panchayat elections, he said polarisation of villages along caste and communal lines was also a disturbing development in the context of Panchayat polls.

``We would have to devote greater energy and attention to some of these issues in order to find a solution. But the time has come for accepting the Constitutional mandate and of sharing powers and responsibilities. This alone will lead to genuine democratic decentralisation,'' the minister said.

Stating that gram sabha, the fulcrum of the Panchayati Raj, continued to be weak, he said lack of awareness on the part of the sabha members was a reason for their ineffectiveness.

Some of the evaluation studies commissioned by the Planning Commission pointed to extremely low participation of members in the gram sabha meetings. Neglect of the issues that concerned SC/STs and women and financial irregularities due to collusion by elected representative and the field level bureaucracy had also been highlighted, he said. --PTI

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By-election for Bihar panchayat in November