SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Thiruvananthapuram:
Village communities will be better equipped to protect local
resources than the government or panchayats, Director-General of the
Administrative Staff College of India S.K. Rao has said.
Talking
to The Hindu on the sidelines of a workshop organised by ASCI and the
Institute of Management in Government, he said the concept of village
commons was highly relevant in the context of the rising trend of
land grab across the country. He said it was time to revive the old
village-level community process of protecting common resources like
trees, village grazing lands or water bodies.
“When
you transfer the power for protection of village commons to political
bodies like the government or panchayats, you lose that ability to
control local situations. No measure should be taken unless 80 to 85
per cent of citizens directly vote in favour. That way you cannot
take decisions without the larger consent,” he said.
Dr.
Rao said the village community as a whole should be trusted. “In
some villages, people are sharply polarised, but when it comes to
local issues and when people see that there is some good in
protecting village commons, people would not do things which would
mean that the village loses a valuable resource like village tanks or
grazing land.”
Highlighting
the importance of localising the process for protection of village
commons, he said, “do not say it is the responsibility of the State
government. To them, it does not matter if one village common is lost
if someone makes a profit out of it. They want political funding.”
Dr.
Rao said: “In olden days, take for example a village tank, the
boundaries are recognised, you cannot encroach upon it. The village
community will be watching. It is time to revive the system.”
Asked
about the institutional mechanism required for protection of village
commons, he proposed the constitution of a non political trust for
the purpose. The trust, he said, could comprise eminent citizens.
There could also be a council of elders at the taluk level, he said.
“These
things do not happen just by thinking of some smart solution like in
physics. There should be a will for people to do something positive.”
Dr. Rao said the community governance system in some North Eastern
States such as Nagaland could be a good example.
Copyright
© 2012, The Hindu
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