BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Government’s decision to delegate powers of district collectors to sarpanchs may have been ‘historic’ but it could be in direct conflict with the existing structure of disaster management command. Invoking Disaster Management Act 2005 and other legislations, the Government delegated powers of Collectors to sarpanchs of gram panchayats (GPs) in their jurisdiction towards registration of returnees, their streamlined movement as well as 14-day quarantine.
More importantly, under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, they would have powers of enforcement as well as punitive authority. Will the sarpanchs be able to wield that power with objectivity and implement? That is a bigger question and will decide the course of this ‘historic’ decision. The 2005 Act provides for ‘effective management of disasters and for matters connected there with or incidental thereto.’ That is why an incident command system is put in place and Collector as the District Authority is placed at the head of it. As a time-tested institutional set-up, it has worked well. The natural calamities the State Government has tackled successfully vouch for that.
Sarpanchs, on the other hand, represent people at the grassroots but as a political entity stand as an extension of an age old custom of redressal and dispute solving in the grassroots level. Can they handle the authority? “They can handle the redressal system. Recently, the Government entrusted development work to them. Without any assessment of the current situation, the Government has given them powers to manage a public health disaster which is testing the whole world,” say experts.
Moreover, handing over punitive powers to a political person with loyalists and affiliations can be growingly problematic. How will sarpanchs handle the authority when they do not have any official support system in place? Analysts say it could lead to conflict not only in management of the disaster in districts but also in grassroots where people with different political affiliations collide. The large-scale irregularities rural housing during the recent calamities must not be lost on the Government. Interestingly, the Government has completely sidetracked MLAs in the entire system.
Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra says the Government can delegate emergency powers of the Collectors under the law by issuing a notification but agrees that the decision will politicise functioning at the grass-roots level. “The Government decision is a window dressing, only meant for propaganda and no action,” said Mishra, a former Law Minister. His party colleague and former Minister Ganeswar Behera, maintains that without amending relevant provisions of the Acts which vests powers on Collectors, the Government cannot delegate these to sarpanchs. As the Assembly is not in session, an ordinance should have been brought.