The Orissa High Court has ordered District Magistrate, Balasore, to respond to a plea alleging non-involvement of grama sabhas in the ‘Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha’ (AONO) scheme. Under the scheme, ₹50 lakh each is proposed to be given to panchayats to take up rural infrastructure projects and promote, preserve and protect “Jagannath Culture”.
The Odisha Congress took the opportunity to criticise the Naveen Patnaik government for ignoring the role of panchayats in AONO - the State government’s major pre-election scheme.
Hearing the petition of Nagendra Kumar Singha who raised question over implementation of AONO, Justice Biswanath Rath observed the petition involved a serious allegation on the working out of schemes without involvement of panchayat and even the grama sabha, ultimately frustrating the purpose behind creation of three-tier governance.
“Under AONO, each panchayat will get ₹50 lakh. But nowhere in the scheme detail role of panchayat or grama sabha has been mentioned. The 73 amendment says without approval of gram sabha, no project should be implemented,” said Sudarshan Das, Congress spokesperson.
Mr. Das said the Provision of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) also says no project can be implemented without approval of grama sabha in fifth schedule areas whereas the government ignored grama sabhas.
“The AONO talks about promotion, preservation and protection of Jagannath Culture. However, many tribal areas have their own customs and religious belief. The State government cannot impose Jagannath Culture on tribals,” he added.
As the panchayats have already moved proposals to spend the ₹50 lakh provided to them during this financial year, the initial trend says a significant portion of the AONO fund is likely to be spent on temple renovations.
