Trinath
Port Blair, Nov 05: Villagers of Hari Nagar Panchayat today expressed their deep anguish over selection of odd hours for conducting Gram Sabha meeting of the panchayat, by remaining absent from the meeting.
As very few number of people reached to attend the gram sabha meeting and the quorum was not complete, the Pradhan of Hari Nagar Panchayat finally had to declare that that Gram Sabha meeting is cancelled.
Several villagers told Andaman Sheekha that earlier in almost all occasions Gram Sabha meetings were conducted by the Hari Nagar Panchayat in the late afternoon hours, which is convenient time for remote villagers and farmers to attend the meeting but without consulting any prominent people of the area the panchayat scheduled today’s Gram Sabha meeting in the morning hours, which is not suitable for farmers, who have to attend their farmlands and cattle.
To mark the protest, most of the villagers today did not attend the Gram Sabha meeting unlike past, when almost all Gram Shabha meetings were hugely successful because of presence of large number of people of the area.
When contacted the Pradhan of Hari Nagar Panchayat, Mr Uttam Kumar Mandal told Andaman Sheekha that most of the government officers do not attend Gram Sabha meeting in the evening hours and hence Panchayat organised this Gram Sabha meeting in the morning hours but sadly today also large number of government officials where again missing.
This again shows that panchayats of organise Gram Sabha meeting just for formality and not for the villagers.
Finally under pressure of common man, the panchayat had to reschedule today’s Gram Sabha meeting on 8th November at 4:00 p.m. for the convenience of remote villagers. This is indeed a victory of democracy in a tiny Hamlet of Middle Andaman.
