Question

What problems did the villages in Hardas village face? What did they do to solve this problem?

Answer 1

Hint: All adults who live in the area covered by a Panchayat comprise the meeting of the Gram Sabha. This could involve only one village or a few villages. A member of the Gram Sabha is anyone who is 18 years old or more and who has the right to vote.

Complete answer:
The Gram Sabha began with the Sarpanch (who is also called the Panchayat President) and the Panch (the members of the Panchayat) presenting a plan on repairing the road that connects the village to the main highway. After this, there was a discussion about two issues in the Hardas village. The first issue was that of water and water shortages in the Hardas village. A villager Tijia told how the women of the village had to go to the Suru River, which is 3 km away, to get water as the hand pump water had gone way below the point up to which the ground had been drilled. Following this, a member suggested making an overhead tank in the village to increase the supply by piping water from the Suru River but others said that this would be expensive and said that deepening the hand pumps and cleaning the wells for this season would be better. Tijia disagrees with this. Another member named Anwar tells about how in a village in Maharashtra, he saw ways to conserve water and recharging it when he went to visit his brother. This system was called watershed development and people had planted trees, constructed check-dams, and tanks in his brother’s village for this. He had heard that the government had given money for this work. The Gram Panchayat was asked to find out about it in detail as everyone thought of this as a great idea. For this issue the Gram Panchayat members discussed to deepen two hand pumps and clean one well as for this money was also provided by the government. The members then discussed a long term solution to this problem. Lastly, it was decided that the Gram Panchayat would get more information on the scheme by approaching the Block Development Officer.
The next issue was the finalization of the list of people below the poverty line (BPL) which had to be approved by the Gram Sabha. A villager Saroj said that Om Prakash’s name should be on this list, everyone agrees to this. The Sarpanch asks the person who did the survey how his name had been missed out. He says that Om Prakash was not present at his house at the time of the survey. The Sarpanch gives instructions that his name should be included in the list if Om Prakash's family income was less than what had been decided by the government.

Note: This is how rural local governance works. There are two other levels to this Panchayati Raj system; they are Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad.