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Journalism of Courage
In the high-decibel panchayat elections in Punjab, a small village with just around 600 votes is set to witness a unique contest involving its old, traditional rural natives and ‘high-profile urban new settlers’ to elect the new sarpanch.
For Shingari Wala, a village located in Mohali district on the periphery of state capital Chandigarh, this panchayat poll is set to be different with a ‘representative’ of a residential society housing who’s who of bureaucracy and judiciary, including serving and retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officers, high-profile judges, doctors and even pilots, and their family members, running for the post of sarpanch.
That’s because Shingari Wala might be the only village in the state where the new list of its voters will also include more than 200 electors from Punjab IAS/PCS Officers’ Cooperative Housing Building Society Limited, an upscale residential society for current and former bureaucrats/officers/judges established in village’s jurisdiction.
The new voters include society members and their families.
The bizarre-cum-equally keen contest will witness Amit Mehta, 46, the upscale society resident and a lawyer by profession, who will contest for sarpanch’s post against veteran 72-year-old Charanjit Singh, whose wife Rajpal Kaur was elected in the last elections when the village was reserved for woman sarpanch. Thrice the post has juggled between Charanjit and his wife in the past three elections, he says. He was formerly associated with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and later shifted to AAP. Charanjit is a class 8 dropout.
Both Singh and Mehta filed their nominations Friday, the last day for filing the papers for October 15 panchayat polls in the state.
Mehta, a practising lawyer at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, will be contesting as ‘a representative’ of the society members.
Mehta said that the residential society had more than 200 voters, in addition to “around 380 existing voters of Shingari Wala village”.
Boasting of he and his family being elected thrice consecutively, Charanjit is perplexed by the development of a newcomer contesting this time, but has decided to give a fight despite being pitted against a lawyer.
By default, since the society is located in Shingari Wala village jurisdiction, any society resident is entitled to contest the panchayat election and exercise right to franchise as a registered voter.
Doubtful that being a lawyer, Mehta might get his nomination papers rejected on some pretext, Charanjit says he has also made his son Barinder Singh and daughter-in-law Sukhjeet Kaur file nominations. “If not me, my son or his wife will contest against the lawyer,” he asserts.
“He (Amit Mehta) is a lawyer and should focus on judicial matters in the court. His decision to contest the sarpanch election doesn’t make sense. He is telling the villagers that he will make the best use of powers vested with the sarpanch. He even asked me to support him and help reach a consensus to choose panchayat. But, I will contest,” Charanjit Singh told The Indian Express, sitting at a tube-well with a few villagers, a few meters away from the society.
Charanjit said unlike Officer’s Society which has access to all the amenities, the issues of the village were different where people face problems like power outages. “Even in Union Territory Chandigarh, there are villages falling under the UT, but each village has own sarpanchs to manage their affairs,” said Charanjit, as others sitting around him agreed.
Mehta, on the other hand, told The Indian Express, “The development of the village is the sole and paramount interest behind my decision to contest the sarpanch election. I will focus on beautification of village and its streets, setting up of parks and upgradation of village school from primary to secondary,” said Mehta, who in the past served as senior Deputy Advocate General representing Punjab from 2017 to 2022.
Among other formalities and documents, Mehta, who was accompanied by a retired bureaucrat Vinod Kumar Bhalla while filing his nomination papers Friday, attached ‘Rs 77 receipt’ he paid as “chulha tax”, a British era tax which is a pre-requisite to contest panchayat polls.
“Our society was formed in 2005. This is for the first time our votes have been included in panchayat polls. I am representing my society. Its esteemed members, honourable judges wanted that the society should be represented in [Shingari Wala] village panchayat election because there are several issues which could be tackled with mediation,” said Mehta, a practising lawyer for 23 years.
Asked about the issues, Mehta said, “We have many issues as villagers see the society differently, while officially we are part of the village. There is kutcha (non-metalled) road in panchayat land. The villagers have obtained a stay on that. They took a stay against themselves only. It was a road which would have benefited the villagers.
Besides, we have many things in common with the village like the cremation ground which is abutting the society. There is no development as those at the helm did not pay any attention for that. Only the village name is Shingari Wala, but in reality there has been no shingaar (beauty/development) of the village.”
He added that “IAS/PCS officers, honourable judges of High Court, session judges, doctors” were unanimous that there has been no development in the village. “So the development of the village is our top priority,” he said.
Mehta, who is son of retired PCS promoted IAS officer R L Mehta, said, “I am getting a very good response from the villagers and they want change.”
Mehta said the society residents were included as voters for the purpose of Shingari Wala panchayat elections in electoral revision on January 1, 2023. “I don’t know why not earlier, but they were included for the purpose of panchayat elections on 01/01/2023,” said Mehta.
“Ours is one of the best society in Northern India. We don’t want any funds for the society. We want to carry out development in the village and beautify the surroundings,” said Mehta.
An office-bearer of the society told The Indian Express that there were 543 members of the society which includes members of four other societies each for excise and taxation department officers, judges, doctors and pilots. The office-bearer said IAS/PCS Society has 364 members and remaining members were from the other four societies who were clubbed with IAS/PCS officers’s society by an agreement to meet the requirement of minimum 100 acres of land for the purpose of change of land use.
Among the total number of members of the society, many are yet to construct houses on their plots.
A total of 1,446 nominations for the post of sarpanchs and 3,890 for the post of panchs have been received in the district on the last day of filing of nominations for the gram panchayat elections.
Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Aashika Jain said that the block-wise break-up of nominations according to the report received from SDMs suggests that a total of 314 nominations for the post of sarpanchs and 970 for panchs have been submitted in the Mohali block, while 275 for sarpanches and 669 for panchs have been received in Kharar block. Similarly, a total of 505 nominations for sarpanches and 1,336 nominations for panchs have been received in Derabassi block, while 352 and 915 nominations are for Majri block.
Jain said the filing of nominations is completed on Friday and the scrutiny of these papers will be done on October 5. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is October 7 by 3.00 pm.
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