20 July,2009 08:17 AM IST | | Somita Pal
Residents of Juhu gaothan get ready to elect their sarpanch
IF you thought that gram panchayat was a concept belonging to rural India, think again.
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The city is soon going to get its first gram panchayat and that too, in Juhu, thanks to the Gaothans Active Residents Association of Juhu (GARAJ).
Elected head
GARAJ member Gleason Barretto said, "After verifying their past service and credentials, two candidates have been short listed and allocated symbols.
Polling will be conducted in Juhu village and the winner will be declared sarpanch."
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He added that the whole idea behind the gaothan panchayat system was to put into practice a concept of self-management aimed at solving the gaothan's issues.
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Added Ian Creado, another GARAJ member, "We felt the need for this, as all the villages in Mumbai face the threat of development."
The election has been scheduled for July 26. "We are trying to make everyone understand the benefits," said Hector Tixeira, resident of the area and member of GARAJ.
Good idea
Though the panchayat won't be recognised by the government, Juhu Corporator Adolf D'Souza feels it fits the Nagar Raj bill of having an Area Sabha Representative (ASR).
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"The sarpanch will do the work of an ASR. It's a welcome move. If it's successful it can be implemented even in the slums and koliwadas," he said, adding that he would co-operate with the sarpanch to ensure the BMC solved the gaothan's civic issues.
The system
The sarpanch will select five panchas who will represent 5 homes each. The sarpanch and the panchas will meet every week.
They will meet the municipal councillor once a month. They will also co-oridinate with the MLA, the MP, BMC, police and traffic officials.
The gaothan sabha meeting will be held once a month and will be open to all gaothan residents.
Jagruk Nagrik Manch (JNM), an organisation which serves as a common platform for NGOs, ALMs and other citizen groups, carried out a survey in the Andheri west constituency A 165 to to determine whether the people are willing to support a citizen activist over candidates from a political party in the upcoming state legislative assembly elections.
The activists have divided the constituency into seven zones and dispatched teams armed with questionnaires to collect the data.
We will select our candidate on the basis of their contribution to civic and social issues,said activist Mayank Gandhi, adding that they aim to finalise their candidate by soon.
That would give us enough time to build a campaign around the candidate. JNM had first tried this model during the February 2007 civic elections.
Said Gandhi, In the February 2007 civic elections, Juhu residents elected Mumbai's first citizen corporator by consensus.
The same Juhu ward is now one of the seven wards of the Andheri west constituency.
Explaining the motive behind their initiative, Gandhi said, Our attempt to get a citizens consensus candidate is to demonstrate to the country that it is still possible to elect a person without the use of money, muscle, criminals or divisive agenda.
