Example of a village in North Kerala

What would be the beneficial effect of giving direct power to the Gram sabhas or the people? We will try to understand it through this example of village in north Kerala. In the panchayati raj system of the state, no industry can be set up in a village unless the gram sabha gives its acceptance to set the factory up. 

 

 

In a village in northern Kerala a multinational company wanted to set up a large factory for timber business. The company would have cut trees in the nearby areas for production of wood in the factory. The people did not want that the trees should be cut and, therefore, they refused the permission to put up the factory. The permission to set up the factory was granted to that company by the Minister of the state, by the collector of the district and even the pradhan of the village. But when this matter was raised in the gram Sabha the people opposed the very idea of the factory. It was affecting the ecology of their surrounding. They cared for the trees and did not want the ecology tempered with. 

 

 

This shows that the government can be sold, collect or could be bribed or sarpanch could be bought or could be brought under pressure but it is not possible to buy the people as a whole. They are the only ones who can decide what they want and what they do not because each decision affects their life. The power of decision should rest with them. They are the best judge of what is good or bad for them. While every official in the chain gave permission to set up the timber factory, the people whose life matter the most were not consulted. If this law was not there then the factory would have come up and affected the life of people in that region.