By Japan K Pathak, Ahmedabad, 12 December 2011

To ensure incentives under Gujarat government’s Samras gram scheme, this remote village located in south-eastern corner of Gujarat has done something that even Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi or the state election commission might not have thought of!

A small and remote village Kumkuva in south Gujarat’s Tapi district organized a private election of Sarpanch before the scheduled election for same on December 29th.

While December 29th poll will be held by the state election commission, the village organized a private election to finalize a one and only unanimous candidate. Total three candidates contested the mock poll. One who won with highest vote has now filed his nomination for the actual poll. Ultimately he would be declared as unanimous elected Sarpanch, and thus the village would get benefits of Samras scheme meant for villages co-opting all the panchs and sarpanchs unanimously.

“There were three candidates ready to contest poll for the post of Sarpanch. When all efforts of convince two of them to avoid the poll failed, we decided to organize a private election in the village. It was also decided that whoever wins would contest the election, and other two would not. Accordingly in presence of veterans of the village, we organized a private election with pen, paper and boxes. Only one of the three candidates who got highest votes would file his nomination for the post of Sarpanch in actual poll scheduled on December 29th. He would be unopposed winner thus, and our village would get all benefits of Samras scheme,” a veteran villager of Kumkuva told DeshGujarat.

By adopting the mock poll method, Kumkuva has presented amazing example to surrounding villages. Only time will tell, whether this would prove infectious or not. Songadh taluka has 74 gram panchayats, while Tapi district as a whole has 284 gram panchayats that are going to witness panchayt poll on December 29th.

What is Samras gram panchayat scheme, and what are the rewards?

‘Samras’ village-hamlets are those where local body of village is elected unanimously by the villagers, avoiding actual voting.

Prior to 2001 there was a scheme for those villages co-opting all the panchs and sarpanchs unanimously for incentive as low as Rs, 2000, and about 27% villages were beneficiary of that scheme. But Chief Minister Narendra Modi coined a word ‘Samras Gram Yojana’ in the first cabinet meeting of his rule in October 2001, and declared rise in rewards wishing that more gram panchayats should elect their local body unanimously.

In 2001 December when gram panchayat polls of more than 10,000 villages were to be held and they were described as Modi’s first acid test, it was declared that under Samras scheme, a village having a population of up to 5,000 will be given an incentive of Rs 60,000, while a village with a population of up to 15,000 will get Rs 1 lakh. Added to this, the government notification in 2001 said, “priority will be given to villages for grants and sanction of schemes if they enjoy the ‘Samras’ status”.

The state minister had at that time declared that the govt wanted 40% gram panchayats to adopt Samras way, however this target was not achieved.

Five years later, in 2006, when over 10,000 villages were again ready to witness gram panchayat polls, Modi govt declared rise in incentive for the villages that adopt Samras way. As per the scheme declared by state Panchayat department, a Samras village with a population above 5,000 received an incentive of Rs 1 lakh, while villages with a population between 5,000 and 15,000 received Rs 1.5 lakh . A village that appoints a woman was rewarded an incentive of Rs 7 lakh. A village that was declared Samras for the second time received an additional 25 per cent over the incentive money. About 28% villages were declared ‘Samras’ in 2006.

Now again after five years, just before the election of 10,509 gram panchayats(scheduled on December 29th), the Chief Minister has announced rise in rewards for Samras villages. As per his announcement in November 2011 at Gandhinagar’s Mahatma Mandir where all village sarpanchs of the state had gathered, the prize amount for ‘samras gam’ with less than 5,000 populations wll be Rs.3-lakh now, and that for ‘mahila samras gam’ will be Rs.5-lakh. The villages winning the ‘samras gam’ prize second time will get 25 per cent additional grant with CC Road. The village becoming the ‘samras gam’ prize for the third time will get another 25 per grant (in addition to the normal 100 per cent and 25 per cent grant received earlier). The ‘samras gam’ having school up to Seventh Standard will get priority to upgrade the school up to Eighth Standard.