Winning the war
Initially, the management of common property and its resources had never been contentious in Bunga. However, the status of the village's HRMS was threatened when the state government passed the Haryana Amendment Act no. 9 of 1992. It brought all revenue from the village's common land under the purview of the panchayat. Since the village's dam was constructed on common land, this meant that all revenue from it as well as from the sale of bhabbar and fodder would go to the panchayat. The villagers protested because they knew that once their funds went into the panchayat's hands they would find it difficult to access them for their needs. Bunga HRMS filed a suit in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the implementation of the act and won in 1995. However, the state government appealed in the supreme court, which referred it back to the high court. In 1999, the case was finally settled in favour of the village. "If the money was with the panchayat, it would have been very difficult to access it as and when we wanted. We were also unsure whether the revenue department would release money for repair and maintenance. HRMS was a better choice to manage funds. It is more transparent and anyone in the village can access the accounts any time,' says Surinder Singh, a villager. The panchayat supported the villagers.
"HRMS spent about Rs 60,000 on the case, but it has paid off. The case has unified us,' says Gurnam Singh, HRMS chief. Between 1992 and 2000, HRMS earned Rs 11.37 lakh. The expense was about 5 per cent of this.
Related Content
- Mini grid solutions for underserved customers: new insights from Nigeria and India
- Draft Mineral (Auction) Third Amendment Rules, 2023
- Climate and equity: a framework to guide policy action
- The role of rail in decarbonizing transport in Developing Countries
- Global market outlook for solar power 2023-2027: focus on South East Asia
- No matter who’s fighting, hunger always wins: how violent actions drive food insecurity