A popular meme about elected representatives paint them as a species that go extinct immediately after election, only to spring back into life after five years when the next election becomes due.
V.S. Akbar, who got elected as Mulavukad panchayat president in his debut innings as a member, seems insistence on proving that clichéd notion wrong. Within days of being sworn-in as a member, he started going around his ward to ensure uninterrupted receipt of welfare pensions. The pension for widows aged under 60 years and spinsters aged below 50 years need an affidavit from the newly elected ward member about their continuing eligibility when the panchayat governing committee changes.
“I chose to door-deliver that affidavit to spare the aged beneficiaries of the hardship of having to come to me. I have asked other members as well to do the same. Besides, these visits help me get a clear first-hand idea about the problems faced by people,” said Mr. Akbar. Beneficiaries then can submit an application along with the death certificate of the husband, in the case of widow pension, copies of ration card and Aadhaar card, and the member’s affidavit with the village officer and get the relevant certificate through the common service centres.
First contest
Though it was Mr. Akbar’s first electoral contest, the 47-year-old Congress activist has been in the forefront of numerous popular protests related to issued faced by the panchayat over the years, from the shortage of drinking water and absence of road to lack of proper transport. He was among the organisers of nearly a year-long protest at Bolghatty Junction for road and other days-long-protests before the Kerala Water Authority and the Goshree Islands Development Authority and was also jailed in the process.
Though he bought a bus to alleviate the transportation woes of the islanders who at that time was mostly dependent on the fleecing share autorickshaws, it ended in a fiasco. A bad road meant frequent maintenance and disruption of services, denting the revenues and that by extension affected the loan repayment following which the bank attached the bus.
Contesting the election, said Mr. Akbar, who rose through the ranks of students’ and youth outfits, was never a priority till this time when the party wanted to field him from the second ward. He duly repaid that faith by wresting the ward back from the Left Democratic Front that won it in the last two elections.
Priorities
Having already convened a meeting of various departments to remove obstacles in ongoing works, he has now lined up the inundation of houses during high tide, the opening of the new homoeo hospital by facilitating water and power connections, and waste management as the priority issues for the maiden meeting of the governing committee scheduled for January 19.