TRUANT VOTERS TO COUGH UP RS 500 IN THIS RAJKOT PANCHAYAT
Friday, 18 April 2014 | Nayan Dave | Raj Samadhiyala (Rajkot)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) may have initiated a massive awareness drive to encourage voters to exercise their franchise on election days, but there is an ‘ideal’ gram panchayat in Gujarat — Raj Samadhiyala in Rajkot — with less than 1,000 voters that has successfully experimented with compulsory voting for the past one decade.
In case an elector is unable to cast one’s vote, he or she has to furnish rational cause of his/her failure to conform to the panchayat rules.
If the 15-member village committee finds the reason invalid, the absentee is slapped with a fine of Rs 500. As a result of the stern rule, the village has been witnessing over 90 per cent turnout in previous elections, including that for Lok Sabha, Assembly and district panchayat.
However, this time the residents of Raj Samadhiyala are planning to register 100 per cent voting on April 30.“We will set an example for the rest of the country if every eligible voter is present in the village,” says Hardevsinh Jadeja, former Sarpanch of Raj Samadhiyala.
Raj Samadhiyala, situated nearly 30 km from Rajkot town, has banned all sorts of political activities in the village. “Our votes will be go to a party and candidate on the basis of work they have done in our village,” Jadeja told The Pioneer.
According to Jadeja, political parties and candidates are not permitted to conduct group meetings or door-to-door campaign in the village. Even, the village panchayat does not allow them to put any sort of hoardings, banners or distribution of leaflets and poll-related material, he added.
Generally election campaigns are done on the basis of caste and communities, says villager Ashok Vaghera, adding that such political activities create enmity among people even after polls.
“We are happily living in peace and harmony in our village. Because of the unity, our village is more developed than any other village in this country. We would not allow any sort of division,” he added.
The locals believe that if political parties are allowed to campaign in their village, they would divide the villagers on party lines, which would jeopardise their harmonious relations.
If a candidate or a party leader is interested in distributing campaign materials, they require the approval of the Gram Panchayat committee after confiding them their political agenda.
Interestingly, election for the post of sarpanch has not been held here over the past five decades. Traditionally, villagers select their representative unanimously. It has a spectacular record of zero crime-rate for the past three decades. This record conferred Raj Samadhiyala with ‘Tirth Gram’ award from Government of India.
The committee generally passes suggestion on the eve of polling day about whom to cast votes according to the merit of a candidate. However, ultimately it is be up to villagers to make their choice. Generally, suggestions passed by the committee have lots of weight, says Sharadaben Muchhalia, a Dalit woman, who has become sarpanch of the village recently.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/truant-voters-to-cough-up-rs-500-in-this-rajkot-panchayat.html
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