Continued....
It was written in earlier part of the book that Government policies and schemes have converted people to “beggar status”. Popat Rao took a bold step and he kept aside all the schemes of the government and went to the people of the village to find their problems, to find what they desired and what should be done to achieve their goals. Some wanted drinking water and some wanted water for irrigation. Some wanted to have electricity and some wanted school.
Finally it was decided that school was everyone’s priority. Popat did not write to the government or approached any department to make a school. He asked the people of Gram Sabha if some one could offer vacant rooms for the school. Two people offered two rooms each and so a school was established in four rooms. Then there was the need of teachers for the school. Popat did not approach the government to appoint school teachers or asked them to send them from elsewhere. Four boys volunteered to teach and so the school started to function. Within a year the result of the school bore fruits.
In the beginning, Popat Rao informs that the gram Sabha was rife with rivalry of warring groups and therefore, the people hardly ever attended the sabhas. But when they saw that the sarpanch was working towards the good of all people, slowly they started to participate in the functioning of the Sabha meetings. Poapt was responsible for opening the school. This act gave confidence to the villagers in the Gram Sabha model that took collective decisions.
The villagers discussed in the gram sabhas the problem of water level having fallen to eighty feet because of famines of last few years. There was an urgent need for storing water. Joint decision was taken that villagers should plant trees and uses various methods to collect and store water. Again the government departments were not approached. The villagers planted trees on their own initiative.
Water was collected using indigenous methods and stored, resulting in water level rising to fifteen feet from eighty feet. Earlier they were not able to har vest even one crop now they were able to harvest two or three crops in a year.
It is very interesting to know that in 1980 the trees that were planted by the forest departments were cut down by the villagers for fire wood. These were not their trees. They belonged to the government. The villagers were not attached to those trees. The trees, which they planted now, were their own trees and no one was allowed to cut them for fire wood. It was a joint effort that was responsible for the progress of the village and its ecology.
After hearing the story of Hivare Bazar, some people argued that the reason of progress of this village was the leadership provided by the sarpanch. It is right that there was contribution of Popat Rao in the
development. But one of the biggest reasons for success of Popat Rao was, more than his leadership, his ability to collectively take decisions in which everyone was responsible for the results.
Who is a good Sarpanch is the question that comes to our mind? We have met a lot of people who are good sarpanch. They are honest and do not indulge in theft of government money. We met a sarpanch who was very good and well meaning person. He was loaded with money and spent his own money for development works in his area. He carried out a lot of work of his own free will without taking consent from the people. He did not fulfill people’s demands but his own that he thought were good for the people. He constructed a public toilet outside the village with his own money. The public toilets are not being used by the public and are now closed because
of disuse.
People of the village did not want a toilet but they wanted something else. This person is not a good sarpanch. A good Sarpanch is one who listens to people’s wishes and fulfills them. He should implement works based on majority decisions of gram sabhas and not on his whims and fancies.
Popat Rao is a good sarpanch because he had taken all decisions which were the decisions of the people too.
In today’s panchayat raj system gram sabhas have not been given any powers. When a sarpanch takes decisions which are the collective decisions of the gram sabhas, progress takes place but where sarpanch takes decisions on his own without taking people’s wishes there is no progress.
The goodness of the sarpanch depends on the fact that the decisions taken by the sarpanch are actually decisions of the gram sabhas also. The good sarpanch is like Popat Rao who worked for the people. But we need to change sarpanch centered politics of this country.
When we change the law and empower the people then we will not wait for Popat Raos. There will be no bad or good sarpanch. The people will take collective decisions which will have to be accepted by the sarpanch. People will make sure that their wishes are implemented by the sarpanch, whether sarpanch is good or bad. This is possible only when such a law is enacted where the power goes directly to the people.
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