CHANDIGARH: Every Sunday, Uncha Samana village, 11 km from Karnal in Haryana, shows the urgency of a ‘cabinet’ meeting that generally happens in distant Chandigarh or New Delhi. Sarpanch Nishant Rana, all of 28 and a Delhi University BCom graduate, chairs the group of 16 ‘ministers’ (panches, 11 with portfolios), in true PM/CM style, albeit at a small scale. “I have given the panchayat the shape of a cabinet to decentralise power. I got the idea from RSS. In the traditional panchayat, the sarpanch is supreme and exercises all powers,’’ said Rana.
Uncha Samana village on NH 1 near Karnal is perhaps the first of its kind in the country, which works like a state or Union Cabinet: 11 panches have been allotted ‘portfolios’ by sarpanch Nishant Rana.
At its regular Sunday meetings, issues are discussed and accountability is fixed. Rana has also constituted an 11-member committee to keep a check on the working of the ‘cabinet’. Rana was elected in February, months after the Manohar Lal Khattar government enacted a law fixing minimum educational qualification for candidates in panchayat elections.
“We have portfolios such as education, health and sanitation, dealing with government departments, purchase, material stock, finance and water works. In the meetings, every department is discussed and the panch takes full responsibility,’’ says Rana.
Every three months, the gram panchayat is convened in which the ‘cabinet’ presents the details of the development work carried out. “It is kind of a white paper on our functioning. Of the annual budget of `2.5 crore, every rupee spent is accounted for. We want to make Uncha Samana a model village,’’ Rana adds. Of the 11 portfolio-holding panches, seven are unmarried. The panchayat, which is also trying to be self-sufficient in power generation and finance, has hired a civil engineer to oversee developmental works.