The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : Aiyer for relook at rotation of reserved seats

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Saturday, Dec 18, 2004

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Aiyer for relook at rotation of reserved seats

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, DEC. 17. The Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyer, today said that he was not averse to the idea of doing away with the practice of rotating the reserved seats in the panchayati raj institutions. "If the reserved seats have remained the same for the past 25 years in Parliament and the Assemblies, why not in the panchayats?" he asked.

Mr. Aiyer's observations came at the inaugural session of the seventh and final round of consultations, referred to as "round table conferences", on panchayati raj here today. He was responding to a reference made earlier by the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, that with the kind of regular, five-yearly rotation in the panchayat raj bodies, no elected representative had a reason to work hard.

Ms.Raje pointed out that under the present system the elected representative does not get a chance to contest from the same area again, as under the rotation the unit would either get de-reserved or come under some other reserved category.

"It is not necessary that a revision of reserved seats is carried out every five years. Whoever competent should get re-elected and others should be rejected by the people," Mr. Aiyer asserted.

In his remarks, Mr.Aiyer, who hailed the progress of the consultations on various aspects of empowerment of the panchayati raj system, carried out in the past 150 days in six different places of the country, said the efficacy of the system rested with the representative character. If the system, launched 45 years back in Rajasthan's Nagaur district by the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, did not deliver, it was due to lack of empowerment.

"To elicit responsiveness you have to have responsibility. The administration, especially the senior bureaucracy failed in bringing in democracy at village level as they were not the representatives of the people," Mr.Aiyer noted. "In a democracy development alone was not enough. The results of development should reach grass root level," he said.

Mr.Aiyer said the health of the panchayati raj institutions varied from State to State. If some of the States like West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu did better than others it was due to the initiatives from the respective State Governments in the past, he said. In Tamil Nadu women were doing well in the panchayati raj system thanks to the work of Self Help Groups (SHGs).

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