Karnataka move to empower villagers to recall representatives fails

BENGALURU: Karnataka’s ambitious plan to empower rural voters with the right-to-recall their representatives from gram panchayats has come to a naught as experts have told the state government that such a right can be bestowed only through a constitutional amendment.

The state government had earlier planned to introduce a bill in the assembly seeking changes in the existing act for local body elections. The move to empower the villagers with the right-to-recall—considered essential by a committee of panchayat raj experts under senior Congress MLA K R Ramesh Kumar—was thought to be the next big step in the panchayat raj movement, which Karnataka pioneered in 1983.

The 173rd constitutional amendment brought about by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1984 was based on the Karnataka Zilla Parishads, Taluk Panchayat Samithis, Mandal Panchayats and Nyaya Panchayats Act of1983, passed by the Ramakrishna Hegde-led government in the state. “The move to introduce right-to-recall is certainly empowering in a democracy.

But for the system of panchayat raj, Article 243 of the Constitution is the Gita, Bible and Quran. Neither this Article nor any other provision of the Constitution allows the right-to-recall,” V S Ugrappa, senior member of the state legislative council and a close confidante of chief minister Siddaramaiah, told ET.

“It will require another constitutional amendment, if this proposal has to be implemented. And it will have to be done by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. Karnataka cannot do anything on its own,” he added. He, however, said that other amendments suggested by the Ramesh Kumar committee to the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993, are possible.

Among other things, the committee had suggested that panchayats need to be consulted before giving land out for commercial or industrial uses; a separate cadre of Panchayat Raj officers; and multiple gram sabhas for women, children, physically challenged, artisans, economically backward groups and farmers to debate and oversee budgetary allocations to them. Most of these suggestions are likely to be part of the Karnataka Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2014, which is likely to be introduced in the state assembly in February.