Keen on municipal tag, villages shut out panchayat poll

Four villages in Nadia district have flatly refused to vote in the mid-May rural elections because they don’t want to belong to a panchayat any more: they want to upgrade to a municipality.

Helpless in the face of the people’s demand, no candidate has filed nomination papers to contest the polls. The last day for filing the nominations was April 16. The existing panchayat, to which the four villages had sent a member each, is run by the CPM.

Look at the people and their pretty pucca houses in Noapara, Kanchrapara (East), Kanchrapara (North) or Rathtala and you’d think they were living in any upwardly mobile Indian town. They now want malls and restaurants and an official “urban” tag, and are willing to pay for it.

“We clearly told the political parties that we don’t want to vote as residents of a panchayat area any longer,” said 40-year-old Amit Sarbadhikary of Rathtala. “We are ready to pay enhanced taxes and want urban benefits like shopping malls, restaurants and cinema halls. Why should we stay under a panchayat?”

Amit and 6,000-odd people are demanding that the villages, now under the Kanchrapara gram panchayat, be included within the Kalyani municipality. As the villages are just on the border, it should be no problem, they say.

A post-graduate from Kalyani Agriculture University, Amit’s fight began 10 years ago when the villagers first approached the district administration and MLAs for a change in their status.

“We explained our reasons to become part of a municipality. Last month, the municipal affairs department accepted our demand,” said Amit, now working with a private fertiliser company.

Political parties have taken note. Santanu Jha, Kalyani municipality chairman and CPM district committee member, said: “The villagers don’t want to live under a panchayat any more. So they asked us not to field any candidate. We have respected their demand and decided not to field candidates.”

District magistrate Onkar Singh Meena said the municipal affairs department had last month decided to accommodate the four villages under two additional wards in the Kalyani municipality.

“According to rules, the panchayat department will have to denotify the villages from its fold. It may take some time.”

However long it takes, the villagers couldn’t be happier. “Now that a decision has been taken, we will become part of the Kalyani municipality sooner or later,” beamed Binod Singha of Noapara.

“We feel the area will develop more if we are part of the municipality. We want a good college and training centres and cyber cafes,” added the soft drinks dealer.

The minister of state for panchayats, Bankim Ghosh, said the matter would be taken up after the elections.

“We are aware of the villagers’ demand. They want to come out of the panchayat fold and become part of the Kalyani municipality. Their demand is justified as they live on the border of Kalyani town.”

The only hiccup is the villagers could become nobody’s children, at least for a while. Between the end of the elections and the actual entry of the villages into the municipality, they would have no elected representatives.

“Roads will not be repaired. There will be no one to pursue the matter or address problems relating to electricity and water supply,” a district administration official said.

But for the villagers, the aspiration to graduate from Bharat to India is overarching.

“Even if there is some problem, it will be temporary. We are happy we have been able to get out of the panchayat fold,” said Bhairav Das, a paint seller of Rathtala.

 

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