Reluctant to share

Even three decades after panchayats received constitutional status, states across India seem unwilling to share power with them

- RAJU SAJWAN

WHEN THE government installed taps in our house in 2021, we were hopeful that the perennial problem of water access would be solved. But nothing happened,” says Yusuf Khan of Ghasera village. “The roads were dug up for laying pipelines, which never arrived. After waiting for months, people levelled the roads with mud to be able to freely use them again,” he adds.

Ghasera in Haryana’s Nuh district lacks basic amenities like water and sanitation. “Our panchayat only works in name. The person who wins the sarpanch election becomes rich over the years, but nothing else changes,” says 70-year-old Saeed, a resident of the village.

What's remarkable about Ghasera is that Mahatma Gandhi visited the village during Partition and asked its residents to not leave India, with the promise that the government was duty-bound to provide basic services. “I remember my father talk about Gandhi's visit, but the situation here is quite bad even nearly eight decades after Independence,” says 65-year-old Jamila. Ghasera does not have a panchayat building, and employs just seven people for cleaning the village of more than 15,000 residents.

Ghasera panchayat is one of India’s 269,057 panchayats, which received constitutional status as the third tier of government in 1992-93, with the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India. The Amendments call upon state governments to enact laws to endow powers and authority to the panchayats to enable them function as local governments.