Click here to Login |
PRI Study Introduction to Panchayati Raj The institution of village Panchayat was developed earliest and preserved perhaps longest in India. The word Panchayat is derived from the word “pancha”, which refers to members of an assembly of elders, entrusted with the task of settling disputes according to customs in a village or within a caste. Until eighteenth century, Panchayats discharged most of the functions affecting the life of the village community, and were effective units of administration. During the British rule, Panchayats and local boards were set up, and various provinces passed the village Panchayat act particularly in 1919 and thereafter. But, the Panchayats formed under these acts were not democratic bodies and the government mostly nominated their members. The constitution of India, which came in to force in 1950, has made detailed provisions for ensuring democratic functioning of the parliament and the state legislatures, but local governments did not get any specific reference and were not made a clear-cut constitutional obligation. The entire concept of Gram Swaraj and Nagar Panchayat, which was advocated by Mahatma Gandhi, was given place in the directive principles of the state policies in the constitution of India in the form of Article 40. This was initial neglect of these grass root institutions for the local self-governance. The focus on rural development started with the realization of the fact that the rural sector was underdeveloped economically, socially and politically. The community development programme was launched in 1952, and the then Panchayati Raj institution was assigned the political task of generating people’s participation and uplifting the weaker sections, which included women. The community development programme failed miserably in achieving its objectives. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, which laid the basis for Panchayati Raj, observed that the main factor that caused failure of the community development programme was the absence of people’s participation. The committee recommended the creation of a three-tier system as the institutional arrangement to make people’s participation meaningful and effective. Another committee, appointed for the review of the functioning of Panchayat raj, was Ashok Mehta Committee in1977 though the government accepted none of its recommendations. Almost after 40 years of stable democratic governance at the national level, it was realized that governance from top has neglected some of the aspects of development at the grass roots and in furtherance of revitalization of Panchayati Raj system, the seventy third amendment has been passed in 1992, which marks the most significant step towards decentralization of governance in India. This amendment has tried to give a concrete shape to the government of India’s commitment to vest power in the hands of the people. Introduction to Panchayati Raj Main Features of the Seventy Third Amendment Karnataka Panchayati Raj Act, 1993 |
|