MASS
CAMPAIGN ON PANCHAYATI RAJ
DURING ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS
Panchayati Raj was included
in the Constitution of India on 01-06-1993. Since then training programmes are
held all over the country covering elected representatives of Panchayats and
Municipalities and officials. But there is no programme on a large scale to
cover the common people who have to actively participate in Gram Sabha and Ward
Sabha. Power should not be enjoyed only by the members of Panchayats and
Municipalities. Power of the people should emanate from Gram Sabha and Ward
Sabha and the elected Panchayats and Municipalities have to be under the
control of the people which is possible only by the active functioning of Gram
Sabha and Ward Sabha in day-to-day affairs of the village or town.
There has been no large scale
mass campaigns to inform and educate the masses on Panchayati Raj and also the
students, self-help groups. The media both print and visual do not give
importance to Panchayati Raj. They are indifferent to discharge their duty in
this area. The Himalayan example of this indifference or mischievous disregard
is the TOTAL BLACK OUT carried by the media both print and visual of the
historic event of District and Block Panchayat Presidents Conference held in April
2008 at Delhi. Though it was held for three days attended by ministers of
Panchayati Raj from all States (Tamilnadu did not participate) and about five
hundred reporters covered the event on all three days and Prime Minister and
Chairperson of National Advisory Council participated and Prime Minister was
presented the FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY CHARTER ON PANCHAYATI RAJ by the Lady
Chairman of Pattanamthitta District Panchayat (Kerala) which was prepared by
the Core Committee from March 2008 and approved by the April 2008 Conference
the media did not report it to the public. Not a single word appeared in the
media about this great meet of the Grassroots leaders. Why? Is this a
conspiracy against Panchayati Raj.
Be that as it may, Puducherry
Panchayat Movement (PPM) realized that we cannot rely on the media to inform
and educate the masses on Panchayati Raj and all those committed to
strengthening Panchayati Raj in the country have to do the “COMPENSATORY WORK ” when the media has failed in playing its
role.
Legislative Assembly elections
was announced on March 1,2011 for Puducherry and Tamilnadu. Poll was scheduled
on April 13. PPM thought this is the right time to carry out the MASS AWARENESS
CAMPAIN in Puduherry and
Tamilnadu. A paper on
APRIL 13 ELEC TION was prepared.
Since the media will not cover it by news reports it was decided to publish the
paper as an ADVERTISEMENT. Since publishing in daily news papers is costly it
was decided to publish the paper in popular weeklies and Bi-Weeklies and
Monthly journals. A search was made to select the weeklies which are popular
and cost-effective. PPM does NOT receive grants from government or any other
source though is is active since 1992. One or two individuals have borne the
financial responsibility.
Five weekly/bi-weekly
magazines were selected. They are NAKKIRAN, THUKLAK, KUMUDAM REPORTER,
NETTRIKAN and the monthly PADAM. Full
page Ads of the paper was published. KUMUDAM REPORTER informed that it is not
possible to cover in a page and published the AD in one and a half page after
our approval. These five magazines have a TOTAL CIRCULATION of TWELVE LALKS
copies and they are sold both in Tamilnadu and Puducherry and outside including
a few countries abroad.
The Assembly Election is on
April 13. The Ads appeared in the magazines which were on sale from 3rd to 9th
April well before the Assembly Poll Date.
In addition to the Ads in
magazines we printed TEN THOUSANDS leaflets of the paper for distribution among
the public.
The salient points covered in
the paper are as follows: Definition of
Democracy by Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi’s idea of Village Swaraj, Total Number
of MPs and MLAs in the country, Total Number
of elected representatives in the three
categories of Panchayats, Failure of State Governments and Political Parties to
strengthen Panchayat Raj, major misdeeds of the state governments in TamilNadu
and Puducherry that weaken Panchayati Raj . People were advised to ask the
candidates and their political party leaders when they come for canvassing
“what is the policy and programme of his party to strengthen panchayati Raj”.
They were advised to reject the candidates who do not give satisfactory reply.
The major points highlighted are: Total number of persons in the country who are
MLAs and MPs is only 4910 But the total
number of Panchayat Representatives is
more than 28 Lakhs who are not given powers to fulfill their
responsibilities. Union
and State Governments are “DISTANT GOVERNMENTS”. But the Panchayats are “NEAREST
GOVERNMENTS”. State governments cannot solve their problems. But the Panchayats
can solve their problems immediately.
The magazines in which the
AD was published take care of the distribution all over the country. LEAFLET DISTRIBUTION was the responsibility of
PPM. How we did this Job?
On April 3 Sunday we proceeded
to VILLUPPURAM 40 KMs from Pondicherry. At Villuppuram we spent about three
hours at the RAILWAY JUNCTION, where the
trains stop for ten minutes, distributing to the passengers in each coach. Ten
of us formed the TEAM and each one
covered Two coaches. Thus it reached people traveling to various destinations.
We covered the Chennai-Guruvayur Express bound for Guruvayur via Nagerkoil and
Thiruvananthapuram, the Vaigai Express bound for Chennai, Tirupathi Express passing through Katpadi and a few
other local trains. After 1 PM we went to the Villuppuram Bus Station and
distributed the leaflet to all passgers sitiing in the buses bound for Chennai,
Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, Bangalore, Salem, Coimbatore, Erode, Madurai,
Dindugal, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Kumbakonam, Chidambaram etc. Thus our
leaflet reached places from Chennai to Kanyakumari etc within a day. We were
happy to see people reading it immediately after receiving it both in the train
and buses. On our way back to Pondicherry we distributed the leaflet in all
villages stopping for about five
minutes.
The leaflet was also sent
to Chief Secretaries, Chief Electoral officers and Ditrict Collectors of both
the state/Ut by post and also to the
ministers and political parties and leading Civic Society Organisations. In
Pondicherry it was distributed in the Bazaar, Beach, Bus Station etc on 9th
April. On 10th April the
Human Rights Organisation arranged a
MARCH to all villages in Puducherry to appeal for 100% polling and PPM joined
them and distributed the leaflet.
The leaflet was exhausted
on 11th April forenoon and PPM also completed the MASS CAMPAIGN in the
evening of April 11 to adhere to Election Commission Schedule..
RESPONSE
From 4th April
moblile calls are received from people who have read the leaflet from all over
Tamilnadu and even from MUMBAI etc. They are Marketing personnel, Bank Staff, Journalists, Dalit activists, NGOs, Retired
govt employees including ex-Police personnel, Security Staff, Hotel owners, Merchnts, Farmers etc. Surprisingly NO CALL from Teachers and
Lecturers till March 10th night.
Two local weeklies sought
our approval to print the AD in their Election Issues as news report and we
agreed on condition that no payment will be made.
An elderly person with
Gandhian Ideology came in person on 10th April morning and offered
to serve the PPM to expand the coverage of its activities though out Tamilnadu.
Many who spoke on phone offered their services in their area. All those who
spoke on phone expressed their happiness about the leaflet and its contents and
stated that when the people are thinking for an alternative to the present
political situation the leaflet of the PPM has shown the direction. They also stated that no body informed them
before about Panchayati Raj and thanked the PPM for doing it through Ads in the
popular magazines at the ridht time.
Both at the Railway
junction and Bus Station we did not see the leaflet on the ground anywhere
after hours of distribution.
The staff of the
advertisement division of the magazines during interaction while it is getting
printed expressed that the AD is highly useful to the public and well written and they are happy on reading it. We just
reacted “ If it is so useful to the public why not the magazines publish them
without getting money from us and perform their social responsibility”. The
staff responded that they would gladly do if they have powers.
PPM appeals that all those
interested in PanchayatiRaj take it to the people directly and gain POPULAR
SUPPORT as the State Governments will not act by themselves.
An English translation of
the leaflet is under preparation and will be made available to all those who
need it.
In sum, we are extremely
happy that the people are happy about this maiden attempt of MASS AWARENESS
CAMPAIGN of PPM during ASSEMBLY ELECTION which they say is well chosen.
V.A.Vasudevaraju
President
11-04-2011 Puducherry Panchayat Movement
9442243261,
0413 - 2241858
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