Ghaziabad shows way,rivals to work jointly for panchayat

Till now there has been no such mechanism to involve losing candidates in village development tasks,despite their admittedly sizeable command over the local population. The Ghaziabad authorities hope it is the first step towards changing panchayat politics in UP,where political violence is common even after elections are over.

The first village to be made part of this initiative is Nahal of Razapur block in Ghaziabad,and it will soon be taken to all the 379 villages in the district. Mohammand Idrish,the winning pradhan,and Yogesh,the losing candidate,signed a joint affidavit today to work towards development of the panchayat.

Under the initiative,the losing candidate will be a special invitee to every panchayat meeting,all his suggestions will be taken due note of and he will also be able to access file notings of panchayats.

“We have tried to evolve the recognition of opposition at panchayat level on the basis of a similar recognition accorded to opposition parties at national and state levels. This will help ensure that even opposition has a say in the development of a local area,where all parties have a stake,and also help us curb political violence,” said Pandey.

Agricultural Production Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh Alok Ranjan said: “If the scheme is successful and for the good of panchayats,we will certainly implement it elsewhere.”

Welcoming the move,Mohammad Idrish,who signed the affidavit today,said they couldn’t afford to ignore their rivals. “A losing candidate commands the support of a sizeable number of people from a village and we cannot overlook them. Though it is too early to predict the outcome,we are positive about it,” Idrish added.

Mrs Yogesh,who lost the Nahal pradhan seat to him,says: “Generally opposition is treated with suspicion,but when both of us work together,things are bound to improve for the villagers. I hope that we can turn our panchayat into a model to be emulated by state and national panchayati institutions.”