Great expectations?
The last phase of the LG polls would be over today. The voters have participated in the exercise with enthusiasm. TV channels have shown even the elderly and the handicapped making their way to the polling stations to change society through the magic power of vote. Political parties have taken part in the competition with gusto. There are reports indicating that many times more money has been spent by the candidates than allowed under the rules. A fairly large number of the scions of the local elite have been elected councillors. The voters and their elected leaders have great expectations.
Very soon the new councillors are going to realise that they have been led up the garden path. The district councils and municipal and metropolitan corporations would be directly managed not by the elected leaders but by bureaucracy. Elected representatives would have nothing to do with subjects such as health, education and agriculture as separate bodies headed by government officers have been set up to deal with these subjects. Many would fondly remember the Local Governments elected under 2003 rules with fully empowered District Nazims directly dealing with all these issues. A District Council Chairman or a city Mayor will merely be removing encroachments, managing graveyards and approving building plans.
Equally frustrated would be the voters who would be told by LG leaders that they are powerless when asked to stop the excesses committed by local police and revenue officials or provide roads, schools, hospitals and potable water for the community.
When the great expectations harboured by a community are not fulfilled this is bound to give birth to large scale bitterness. It is in vain to expect that a man elected by a whole district would be content to act as an adjunct of a bureaucrat. A movement for the empowerment of the councils in inevitable. No government hoping for another tenure will try to put down by force the movement duly supported by the opposition. There will have to be a give and take.
