Press Releases Archive

The State Government has ignored the Government of India directive that it observe the year beginning October 1, 2009 as the Year of Grama Sabha.

Disclosing this here today, Lok Satta Party leaders Bandaru Rammohan Rao, Dr. K. Pattabhiramaiah and N. Saroja Devi said the emasculation of the grama sabha did not portend well for democracy. It is high time the Government of India amended the Constitution making implementation of grama sabha decisions mandatory.

The Government of India guidelines stipulated that panchayats which excelled in conducting and implementing decisions be honored at the end of the year.

According to the guidelines, a panchayats has to convene the gram sabha four times in a year, publicize the meeting, draw up an action plan for development, and review implementation of Government programs and policies at the village level.

The Lok Satta leaders said that panchayats conducted grama sabhas mostly on paper and that too to select Government scheme beneficiaries at the behest of politicians.

They demanded that panchayat boards which failed to convene grama sabhas be abolished. The Government should ensure that grama sabha meetings take place at least this year.

The maturity and equanimity Indians of all hues and religions displayed before and after the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute demonstrated that Gandhiji is alive in the hearts and minds of people, said Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan here today.

He was addressing a meeting at the party headquarters to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastry. Since October 2 happens to be the party’s foundation day, Dr. JP hoisted the national and party flags.

Dr. JP said that Indians could today boast of a 5000-year-old civilization and culture because Gandhi had toiled to build the nation. Pursuing politics as a noble endeavor, Gandhi produced leaders that led the nation admirably for two generations. The leaders who succeeded them turned out to be parasites. In spite of such leaders, the youth are veering round to the view that there is no alternative to Gandhism to march forward. That was why thousands of youth took part in a rally on Necklace Road earlier in the day pledging to end politics of corruption and usher in ethical politics on Gandhi’s birth anniversary.

Dr. JP said Gandhi was just another mortal, no taller or bigger than most of us. Yet he demonstrated what leadership means. Practicing what he preached, he could proclaim, ‘My life is my message.’ “We should live up to his ideals if we want to call him the Father of the Nation.”

On the occasion, party activists pledged themselves to uphold national integrity and unity, democracy, secularism, and ethical and rational politics, and adhere to the Gandhian path of truth and non-violence.

Mr. D. V. V. S. Varma announced that the party’s leadership summit would take place at Harihara Kala Bhavan in Secunderabad on October 11. 2010.