The unexpected happened in Loliem on November 27. A special gram sabha called to discuss the IIT project, which is being forced on the village by the government, was abruptly adjourned by the sarpanch, who then left the meeting along with the panchayat secretary. The people, however, remained put, elected a new chairperson and passed a resolution opposing the IIT. The real boost for the anti-IIT campaigners came when the directorate of panchayats upheld the validity of the resolution and reprimanded the secretary and the sarpanch for leaving the meeting.
The memorandum of the director of panchayats, in essence, upholds democracy at the grassroot level. It takes away the power of the sarpanch to dictate and manipulate the people and vests this power in the gram sabha. In a way it emphasizes the importance of the gram sabha and its place in governance and sends a clear message to all the 189 panchayats in the State that the scope of the sarpanch to manipulate the proceedings of the gram sabha are limited and should people decide to seize power, they would still be on the right side of the law.
The general perception of people in power is that gram sabhas comprise people who while away their time sitting under banyan trees and lack the intellect to take decisions concerning the future of the State or nation. The law, on the other hand recognizes them as legitimate participants in progress and capable of taking important decisions. This belief in the innate wisdom of the common man to articulate his needs and aspirations was borne out by the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
In a landmark judgement in 2013 the Supreme Court directed gram sabhas to take a decision on the $ 1.7 billion bauxite mining project in Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills. In May this year, the NGT upheld the rights of people in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh to decide the fate of the Kashang Integrated Hydroelectric Project. The NGP directed the government to seek approval of gram sabhas in the district before clearing the project. The judgement came after a seven year struggle by farmers who would have lost all their land to the project.
It is widely perceived that the rights of the local people run contrary to development. But when a gram sabha passes a legally correct resolution then it becomes the duty of the government to sit up and take notice. The people of Loliem have been asking a simple question: How does an IIT benefit us? A question that the rest of the people in Goa need to also ask is how does an IIT benefit the State? But they are not asking it, because no one has asked for their land. Goa has stopped asking the right questions and the burden has now fallen on far away Loliem to ask the inconvenient questions. And they have spoken.
