MANDYA: The State Election Commission’s condition banning contractors from contesting the gram panchayat elections can hardly be effective. The contractors are working around the condition by fielding their relatives as their proxies.
The SEC has banned the candidature of contractors if they have construction contracts/ agreements with the GPs concerned. This is to stop the elected contractors from illegally benefiting from their membership as they can do sub-standard construction works and influence/ manipulate the panchayats’ machinery.
According to sources, nearly half of the elected village panchayat members have been contractors. After their election, there have been rampant corruption in contract-related works as they can tweak the rule book, which says: “the Karnataka Grama Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act (1993), section 12 (h) disqualified a person if he has directly and indirectly any share or interest in any work done by order of grama panchayat”.
When contractor-cum-member are helming the local body, there would be no one to question his/ her shoddy jobs.
Following the SEC’s rider, contractors are fielding their spouses, siblings and parents so that they can continue their contract business with the GPs concerned.
Hulkere Mahadevu, a political thinker, said that the there is widespread corruption in contract works of gram panchayats as elected members-cum-contractors carry out sub-standard works. “How can the elected body, which is supposed to ensure quality works for gram panchayats, do its job when its members are contractors themselves? SEC has taken the right decision in barring contractors from contesting the polls. However, this decision may not be effective as contractors are fielding their relatives as their proxies, outsmarting the SEC,” he said.
Mahadevu suggested that the SEC and the government ban the entire family of contractors from contesting the polls.