By Rajan Narayan

Governance at the grassroots level is as rotten as it is at the top, with only one of the 180 panchayats passing the integrity test.

THE RESULTS of the ‘exams’ or assessment conducted by the Directorate of Panchayats for the year 2009-10 is likely to be a big disappointment for those who swear by the 73rd and 74th amendment to the Constitution and wax eloquent about decentralised planning. The presumption being that Panchayats and civic bodies are less corrupt than the government of Goa and the Minister for Town and Country Planning. The exam conducted by the Directorate of Panchayats shockingly reveals that only one of the 180 panchayats, Mencurem-Dhumacen, had no complaints of illegal construction.

The Directorate of Panchayats, in its assessment of the functioning of panchayats in the state, has provided for negative marks for panchayats against whom there are complaints of encouraging illegal construction. Panchayats which have one to twenty complaints of illegal construction get one negative mark; those against whom there are 21 to 40 complaints receive two negative marks; those against whom there are 41 to 60 complaints get three negative marks and panchayats which have 50 or more complaints of illegal construction get four negative marks. The extent of illegal constructions encouraged aided and abetted by the panchayats is dramatised by the fact that the 180 panchayats taken together have 1106 negative marks. If the Directorate of Panchayat’s criterion of one negative point for 20 illegal constructions is taken as the yard stick, there are at least over 32,000 illegal structures in the panchayat areas of the state.

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THE panchayats are classified into four categories depending on the population. The 32 panchayats falling into category A, having the largest population, had 24 negative marks. The negative marks of the 45 medium category panchayats was 249. The maximum number of negative marks went to the 96 category C panchayats, against whom there were 533 complaints of abetting and aiding illegal constructions. In the last category of 16 relatively small panchayats, the number of negative marks was 83.

ILLEGAL HOUSES

It is well known that the majority of illegal constructions are in the coastal areas, driven by the demand from the bold and the beautiful and the rich and the powerful for a seaside second home in Goa. Probably the two richest panchayats in the state, Colva and Benaulim, have the dubious distinction of getting the lowest overall marks arrived by subtracting negative marks from positive marks. The village of Cana-Benaulim, represented by Mickky Pacheco in the Legislative Assembly, secured only six marks for maintaining the infrastructure and performing the various duties required of panchayats. But, as against the six positive marks, the Benaulim Panchayat received 12 negative marks for encouraging illegal construction and breaking other rules. Even with one grace mark awarded by the Block Development Officer (BDO), the village of Cana-Benaulim is at the bottom of the list of panchayats with five negative marks overall.

The Colva panchayat, which is constantly in the eye of a storm, has been awarded the second lowest overall marks and gets only two out of 100. Even these two marks are grace marks awarded by the Block Development Officer. The Colva Panchayat got six marks for its overall performance, which was offset by the six negative marks it got for its sins of omission and commission. So much so, the effective marks scored by the Colva Panchayat was one big zero.

If you examine the mark sheets of the panchayats constituency-wise, the largest group of villages in a particular constituency to get ten or more negative marks is the Cumbharjua constituency represented by Pandurang Madkaikar. The Old Goa village panchayat, represented by Madkaikar’s wife Jacinta, scored ten negative marks while Carambolim, Corlim and Cumbharjua between them secured 31 negative points. The people of Divar Island have reasons to get agitated because Gotli-Navelim secured 11 negative marks with Sao Mathias securing another ten negative marks.

The village panchayat of Taleigao secured ten negative marks. However, the negative marks of the Taleigao constituency as a whole is likely to be much higher than even that of Cumbharjua because a large part of the Taleigao constituency comes under the jurisdiction of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP). I understand that there are over 500 complaints of illegal construction pending enquiry by the CCP, which is controlled by Taleigao MLA Babush Monserrate. The St Cruz MLA Victoria Fernandes does not lag very far behind, with village panchayats in her constituency securing 45 negative marks.

CALANGUTE STINKS

The distinction of the largest number of negative marks secured by an individual stand alone panchayat goes to Agnelo Fernandes-controlled Calangute and Babu Azagaonkar-controlled Dhargal. Both these village panchayats have the highest amount of negative marks of 14 each. If one takes Calangute and Candolim together, the total number of negative marks is 27 (14 in the case of Calangute and 13 in the case of Candolim). The St Andre Constituency represented by Francis Silveira has over 30 negative marks with Agassaim having 10 negative marks and Goa Velha having an equal number. In Aleixo Sequeira’s present Loutolim constituency, the village of Nagoa has nine negative marks, Nuvem has seven negative marks and Loutolim also has an equal number of seven negative marks.

Among the villages which have put up a pathetic performance are St Jose de Areal, which secured a grand total of 10 marks, and Chincinim, which secured a grant total of 12 marks. Manohar Azagaonkar’s Dhargal, which was among the two villages which secured a maximum of 14 negative points, ended up with a total tally of just 15 marks. Seraulim is among the below the pass line of panchayats with a grand total of just 14 marks. Allorna and Chandel are among the two other villages which secured less than 20 marks overall.

PATHETIC AVERAGE

THE average marks secured by the panchayats was around 35 with barely 10 panchayats managing to secure 50% of the total marks. The highest amount of total marks, after subtracting the negative marks and adding the grace marks given by the BDO, was 54 — scored by Curti panchayat, Mollem and Pilgao. The highest number of negative votes went to Dhargal and Calangute. But the distressing factor is that more than 50% of the 180 panchayats got more than five negative marks each which, by the criteria used by the Directorate of Panchayats, implies that there are more than 50 complaints of illegal construction within the jurisdiction of these panchayats. We do not know how many of these are mega projects.

It is true that planning should be done bottom up so that the wishes of the people at the grassroots level would be reflected in the Regional Plan 2021. But going by what is happening at the grassroots level with charges of corruption being leveled against sarpanch after sarpanch, one wonders whether Panchayati Raj would be any better than Monster Rat Raj or the Yuv Raj. Our worse fears are confirmed by the report card of the Directorate of Panchayats where only one of the 180 panchayats has escaped censure by the Directorate of Panchayats while 179 have been indicted on one count or the other.