On the occasion of the world social day, which was observed on Sunday, activists working in the field of social justice have written to the government, seeking formation of social justice committees in villages ofGujarat.
Dalit rights activist, KantilalParmar, in a letter addressed to the chief secretary,Pankaj Kumar, said that according to provisions of the Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1993, social justice committees have to be constituted in every village. He said that section 92 of the Act must be implemented by constituting such committee in every village.
Such committees are either not formed or only exist on paper. According to rules, these committees are expected to meet once every three months, but in a majority of villages, these meetings are not held at all, Paramr said in the letter.
He added that according to rules that govern implementation of the Act, the talati-cum-mantri of the village is mandated to hold meetings of thesocial justice committeeonce every three months. Parmar said that although there are about 18,500 villages in Gujarat, the number of gram panchayats are 13,632 as some villages are combined together have a single gram panchayat. Out of these, less than 3,000 gram panchayats have formed committees and none of them holdmeetings, he said.