The Hindu : Kerala News : EC's proposal yet to get support

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Monday, Dec 06, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

EC's proposal yet to get support

By N.J. Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 5. The State Election Commission's proposal to conduct direct elections to the posts of grama panchayat presidents, municipal chairpersons and corporation mayors as a measure to counter political instability in local bodies is yet to find support among political parties in the State.

The functioning of 400 local bodies, including 325 grama panchayats in the State, was disrupted because of inter-party squabbles or intra-party adjustments in sharing power since the last elections were held in 2000. Frequent re-election and change of guard had led to administrative crisis and wastage of public funds and had derailed the development process in all such local bodies, sources said.

The affected local bodies included Thrissur, one of the five city corporations in the State.

Functioning of many panchayats and municipalities was affected when factional feuds within political parties disturbed the slender majority of the ruling group in many local bodies. This had also led to bribery to induce members to defect and to engage in cross-voting.

There was a spate of such incidents when factional squabbles were at its peak in the Congress. Many panchayat presidents belonging to the UDF were ousted with the support of the LDF members.

Decentralisation

Following democratic decentralisation in Kerala, panchayats and municipalities were given extensive powers and funds. But such extensive empowerment did not have the desired result because of political instability in many local bodies. Often, it would take a president at least six months after assuming office to get a grasp of the administration and other crucial issues in a panchayat. But in many cases, a no-trust motion would be piloted even before a president settles down to business, forcing him to step down. This had derailed development projects in many local bodies.

It was in this context that the State Election Commission mooted direct election of grama panchayat presidents, municipal chairpersons and corporation mayors to ensure stable governance for five years. Though the issue is yet to be considered by the UDF, the Law Minister, K.M. Mani, had reiterated that the proposed system was against parliamentary practices and democracy. Mr. Mani said that such a system of electing presidents would be an aberration of democracy.

But many States, including Tamil Nadu, had successfully implemented the system, the sources said. A president who is directly elected by the voters cannot be dislodged through a no-confidence motion and he can run the administration without impediments. Since a tenure of five years is assured, such an elected president can plan projects and implement them without hindrance.

Autocracy feared

However, according to the secretary of the Kerala Grama Panchayat Association, R. Sivarajan, the proposal, if implemented without adequate safeguards, would make the heads of civic bodies autocratic. It might tend to ignore majority opinion of the committee members and lead to administrative crisis. If such a system was found lacking in the local bodies, why it was not being proposed for the election of the Chief Minister?

The local self-government institutions alone need not become the laboratory for such political experiments, Mr. Sivarajan said.

But another opinion is that since grama sabhas are powerful bodies in the Panchayati Raj system, presidents of local bodies are directly answerable to the voters and cannot afford to be autocratic. The smaller parties in the ruling and Opposition political fronts are generally opposed to direct election to the post of presidents since they are afraid of losing the chance of winning such posts.

According to Peelipose Thomas, convener of the KPCC committee on Panchayati Raj, `direct election' would help improve the quality of leadership in the local bodies. He does not approve of Mr. Mani's argument.

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