West Bengal: CPI(M) Launches Nazare Panchayat Campaign With Eyes on Next Year’s Polls

Kolkata: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday announced a campaign to make all Panchayat bodies of the state hold Gramsabha or general body meetings within a month. In those meetings, people should demand an account of the loots that have taken place through the village bodies, the Left Party said.

The CPI(M) announced this programme as part of its Nazare Panchayat campaign in the state in view of the impending Panchayat elections, which are scheduled to be held next year. Notably, there were reports of widespread violence, rigging, booth capture, and dozens of deaths in the state during the last Panchayat polls held in June 2018. Scores of poll personnel were injured at the hands of the ruling party hooligans in that election, according to reports.

Various opposition parties, including the CPI(M), other Left parties, Congress and even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have argued that free and fair polls cannot take place in the state without breaking the rigging machinery allegedly orchestrated by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
 

Announcing the Nazare Panchayet campaign, CPI(M) state secretary MD Salim on Sunday highlighted that during the Left Front period, the law was modified to have Gramsabha meetings in every Panchayat of the state. Now, the Block Development Officers are empowered to call the Gramsabha meetings in the state's panchayats. He also warned that if the time frame of one month for holding the Gramsabhas is not complied with, people will organise Gramsabhas on their own and seek the accounts of the loots that have taken place in the panchayats of the state.

During the Left Front government’s time, people took part in Gramsabha meetings to plan and implement their area’s development policies and could even challenge the financial aspects of the Panchayats.

Speaking to reporters, Salim alleged that in the last decade, the TMC has taken over the Panchayats by force and done away with the participatory mode of democracy enshrined in the Panchayat Act. He added that now the Lok Sabha or the state Assembly has failed to deliver and people will seek clarity on the financial aspects of the different government transactions like the MGNREGA, or widow pension allowance, scholarship, or the fund spent during road and embankment repairing work.

He also cited the recent disclosures whereby a 57% cut money was apparently prevalent in Birbhum district under TMC President Anubrata Mondal to get any work and questioned what development could take place with the leftover amount. As a result, in place of iron, bamboo reinforcements have been given, and instead of cement, sand has been piled. 

He also claimed that through Paharai Public (a vigil campaign started by the CPIM), the party received a significant amount of first-hand information about irregularities and malpractices carried out by TMC leaders. He said that it is the start of a long-drawn investigation by the Enforcement Directorate about the disproportionate asset case of the 19 TMC leaders and they are crying foul over it.

Salim further said that public anger is on the rise in West Bengal, and people are fed up with the largescale theft by the TMC. He added that now the task is to break the circle of corruption from the basic panchayat level up to the Nabanna, and for this, programmes like Nazare Panchayat has been taken up.

He also highlighted that corruption and money laundering cases have been filed against eight district magistrates, but the role of TMC party leaders is purportedly being shielded.