Ministry of Panchayati Raj

Table of contents
1. An Introduction

2. Main features
3. Powers and responsibilities

4. 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj

a) Village level panchayat

b) Block(intermediate) level panchayat

c) District level panchayat

5. Main Problems

6.Reservation for Woman in Panchayati Raj Institutions

7.Implications of constitutional 73rd & 74 Amendment

8). Challenges
a. Gram Panchayat is not really the lowest unit for implementation

b. Lack of capacities at the Gram Panchayat for planning, estimation of works

c. Lack of availability of local line department functionaries/lack of local

technical skills

d. Lack of information

e. Delays in fund transfer to the Gram Panchayat- low accountability of the

higher institutions.

f. Riders for NREGA: Challenges of backward districts

9).In conclusion
 1. An Introduction :-

Panchayats have been the backbone of the Indian villages since the beginning of
recorded history. Gandhiji, the father of the nation, in 1946 had aptly remarked that
the Indian Independence must begin at the bottom and every village ought to be a
Republic or Panchayat having powers. Gandhiji’s dream has been translated into
reality with the introduction of the three-tier Panchayati Raj system to ensure
people’s participation in rural reconstruction.

The constitution of free India envisaged organization of village Panchayats and

endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to
function as units of Local self government.The government of India set up a
committee in June 1986 which recommended the Panchayati Raj institutions
should be constitutionally recognized, protectedand preserved. Late Shri Rajiv
Gandhi's government accepted the recommendationsof the Committee and brought
forward the 64th Constitutional Amendment Bill. But theBill could not be
enacted.

Panchayati Raj Institutions were constituted in the various states but it could not
live upto the expectations for various reasons. Keeping in view the past
experiences, it become imperative to provide constitutional status to local
selfgovernment to impart certainty, continuity and strength. Thus, the constitution
73rd Amendment Act 1992 came into effect which envisages states to establish a
three tier system of strong, viable and responsive Panchayats at the village,
intermediate and district level.

Although, the Panchayati Raj in Rajasthan enjoys good reputation but it could not
go upto many expectations till today i.e., strong, viable and responsive solidarity
among large number of massess.Situation may not improve merely by amending
the Act, What is to be needed todayis achange in thinking and bringing about a
sense of consciousness among the people as well as the administrators. New
normsandethics need to be created for both which will subserve the ideals of
underlying decentralisation. Even learned foreign experts may beinvited to form
opinion before studying the situation. For achieving better resultsand greater
commitments to PRI's bodies. Likewise, Panchayats should be made more active
and responsive so that social awareness and consciousness could be created at the
grassroots level. It is then, that the trueideals and experience in democratic
decentralization would walk hand in hand. Then only, as Nehru said, every one in
the country would be a partner in the progress.

2. Main Features:-

(i) A 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all States having population of over 20
lakh
(ii) Panchayat elections regularly every 5 years
(iii) Reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women (not
less than one-third of seats)
(iv) Appointment of State Finance Commission to make recommendations as
regards the financial powers of the Panchayats and
(v) Constitution of District Planning Committees to prepare development plans for
the district as a whole.

3. Powers and responsibilities :-

*Preparation of plan for economic development and social justice.
*Implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice in
relation to 29 subjects given in Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution.
*To levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees.
4. 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj :-
a) Village level panchayat
b) Block(intermediate) level panchayat
c) District level panchayat.

a).Village level panchayat:-

It is called a Panchayat at the village level. It is a local body working for the good
of the village. The number of members usually ranges from 7 to 31; occasionally,
groups are larger, but they never have fewer than 7 members.
b). Intermediate level panchayat:-
Panchayat samiti is a local government body at the tehsil or Taluka level in India.
It works for the villages of the Tehsil or Taluka that together are called a
Development Block. The Panchayat Samiti is the link between the Gram
Panchayat and the district administration. There are a number of variations of this
institution in various states. It is known as Mandal Praja Parishad in Andhra
Pradesh, Taluka panchayat in Gujarat, Mandal Panchayat in Karnataka, etc.In
general it's a kind of Panchayati raj at higher level.
Constitution
It is composed of ex-officio members (all sarpanchas of the panchayat samiti area,
the MPs and MLAs of the area and the SDO of the subdivision), coopted members
(representatives of SC/ST and women), associate members (a farmer of the area, a
representative of the cooperative societies and one of the marketing services) and
some elected members.
The samiti is elected for 5 years and is headed by the chairman and the deputy
chairman.
Departments
The common departments in the Samiti are as follows:

1. General administration
2. Finance
3. Public works
4. Agriculture
5. Health
6. Education
7. Social welfare
8. Information Technology and others.

There is an officer for every department. A government appointed block

development officer is the executive officer to the samiti .

Functions

1. Implement schemes for the development of agriculture.

2. Establishment of primary health centres and primary schools.
3. Supply of drinking water, drainage, construction/repair of roads.
4. Development of cottage and small-scale industries and opening of
cooperative societies.
5. Establishment of youth organisations.

Sources of income
The main source of income of the panchayat samiti are grants-in-aid and loans
from the State Government.
c).District level panchayat:-
In the district level of the panchayati raj system you have the "zilla parishad". It
looks after the administration of the rural area of the district and its office is
located at the district headquarters. The Hindi word Parishad means Council and
Zilla Parishad translates to District Council. It is headed by the "District Collector"
or the "Distric Magistrate" or the "Deputy Comminissioner". it is the link between
the state government and the panchayat samiti (local seld government at the block
level)
Constitution
Members of the Zilla Parishad are elected from the district on the basis of adult
franchise for a term of five years. Zilla Parishad has minimum of 50 and maximum
of 75 members. There are seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes,
backward classes and women.
The Chairmen of all the Panchayat Samitis form the members of Zilla Parishad.
The Parishad is headed by a President and a Vice-President.
Functions
1. Provide essential services and facilities to the rural population and the planning
and execution of the development programmes for the district.
2. Supply improved seeds to farmers. Inform them of new techniques of training.
Undertake construction of small-scale irrigation projects and percolation tanks.
Maintain pastures and grazing lands.
3. Set up and run schools in villages. Execute programmes for adult literacy. Run
libraries.
4. Start Primary Health Centers and hospitals in villages. Start mobile hospitals for
hamlets, vaccination drives against epidemics and family welfare campaigns.
5. Construct bridges and roads.
6. Execute plans for the development of the scheduled castes and tribes. Run
ashramshalas for adivasi children. Set up free hostels for scheduled caste students.
7. Encourage entrepreneurs to start small-scale industries like cottage industries,
handicraft, agriculture produce processing mills, dairy farms, etc. implement rural
employment schemes.
8. They construct roads,schools,& public properties.And they take care of the
public properties.
9. They even supply work for the poor people.(tribes,scheduled caste,lower caste)
Sources of Income
1. Taxes on water, pilgrimage, markets, etc.
2. Fixed grant from the State Government in proportion with the land revenue and
money for works and schemes assigned to the Parishad.

5.Main Problems :-
Started with great hope and enthusiasm some of the major problems and short
comings that devoted in the working Panchayati Raj institutions can be identified
as :

(I)Election not being held on a regular basis.

(ii)Lack of adequate transfer of powers and resources to Panchayati institutions.

(iii)Lack of Panchayati Raj bodies to generate their own resources such as tax on
sale land.

(iv)Non-Representation of woman and weaker sections in the elected bodies.

6.Reservation for Woman in Panchayati Raj

Institutions :-
The Constitution 73rd Amendment Act in order to revive the existing Panchayati
Raj system due to its structural and functional inadequacies has made mandatory
on the part of the states that theywould reserve a minimum of 30 per cent of seats
to woman in their Panchayati Raj institutions so as to involve actively in the
decision making process.In accordance with the 73rd Amendment 33 per cent of
seats have been reserved for rural woman in the Panchayati Raj Institutions.The
Statutory reservation of seatsfor woman inPanchayati Raj bodies has provided
anopportunity for their formal involvement in the development and political
processes at the grass root level thereby to enabling them to influence the
decisionmaking process in the local governments.

7.Implications of constitutional 73rd & 74

Amendment:-
The 73rd & 74thConstitutional Amendment 16 has been made to many weakness.It
has certainfeatures which arebinding on the state legislature where they can go to
discretion :

I.ConstitutionalStatus to Panchayati Raj Institutions.

II. Reservation of Seats for Weaker Section of Society.

III Direct Election of Panchayati Raj, every five years at all levels.

IV. Finance Commission to be set up by State Government to devolve funds and

suggest ways of financing Panchayati Raj Institutions.

V.Election Commission at State Level to Conduct Panchayati Raj Elections.

All these elected bodies have now, been in position for more than five years.It is
thus, important to verify whetherthe aims and objectives of the Constitutional
amendmentandthe aspirations generated by it have beenmet and if so, to what
extent.Various discussions, debates, conferences are being organized to see and
many issues are debated for new experience.Main burning issues is to
I.Devolution of finances to PRI's bodies.

II.Exercise of Power and responsibility by Panchayati Raj Institution.

III.What has been the impact of the reservations especially for woman and to what
extant this has helped the weaker section of society.

IV.Whether the PRI's in the new set up have improved their positionregarding
devolution of powers and financial resources in view of setting up State
Financeand Election Commissions.

V.What sort of training and orientation 18 would be required for thenewly elected
Panchayati Raj bodies.

In a net-shell the 73rd Amendment had aroused a lot of expectations and it is to

beexpected that it would usherPanchayati Raj Institutionsina new and dynamic
role.

8). Challenges :-
a. Gram Panchayat is not really the lowest unit for
implementation.
A majority of the primary stakeholder for the NREGA and the Bonthi PRI Project
are unskilled labour in the villages. For these communities, especially those staying
in villages other than the Gram Panchayat headquarters, the Gram Panchayat is still
an institution at some distance. The opportunity costs for transacting with the Gram
Panchayat is often the loss in daily wages. Hence, any programme designed for the
unskilled labour should actually detail operational modalities that recognise their
livelihood imperatives and enable their engagement. It is in this perspective that
the operational modalities from Gram Panchayat to the village/hamlet level and
vice versa are considered important.
b. Lack of capacities at the Gram Panchayat for planning,
estimation of works.
For realizing “demystification” of technical estimates, as envisaged in the
guidelines, a lot of capacity building initiative needs to focus on the Gram
Panchayat and the villages. The role of the civil society is currently very limited in
the guidelines. It needs to be strengthened, at least, for aspects of community
capacity building, supporting implementation and for strengthening the monitoring
and social audit processes.
Lack of local capacities for planning and implementation is the biggest impediment
for processes that seek to strengthen decentralised institutions. These constraints
cannot be wished away – they have to be addressed through systematic and
sustained capacity building support – there are no short-cuts.
c. Lack of availability of local line department functionaries/lack of local
technical skills.
Bonthi Gram Panchayat does not have a full time secretary. An agriculture
assistant from the agriculture department is deputed as a secretary with “additional
charge”.
He also has “additional charge” of another nearby Gram Panchayat. Although
cooperative in timely disbursal of funds for sub committees, the secretary finds
little time to get intimately involved in the project activities. The Junior Engineer
also shares responsibility with other panchayats. The panchayat relies on these two
functionaries for all its activities.
d. Lack of information
The current guideline has little stress on an organized information campaign at the
village level for the NREGA. In Bonthi, we find that many misconceptions exist
about the programme among the community that are rare clarified through
objective sources.

e. Delays in fund transfer to the Gram Panchayat- low accountability of the

higher institutions.
Fund releases from the Zila Panchayat to the Gram Panchayat take a long time to
get processed. This despite promises by officials to look into the matter, each time
the matter is discussed in the Steering Committee Meetings at the Zila Panchayat.
Also, no communication from the Zila Panchayat to the Gram Panchayat is made
on the reasons for the delay. For, the Zila Panchayat handling multiple
programmes in 175 gram panchayats, this is just another project file. Changes in
officials further complicate matters, as new officials require time to understand the
project. Donor intervention was required for all fund releases till date.
Although the NREGA guidelines provide for punitive action on part of erring
Gram Panchayats that delay job creation after a demand has been made, levels
above are not equally accountable. This will prove to be a big hindrance for
ensuring work as a “right” as the Act envisages. There are delays of over a year in
labour payments reported from at least two villages in Bonthi Gram Panchayat.

f).Riders for NREGA: Challenges of backward districts:-

The 200 backward districts where the NREGA is being implemented make the Act
more desirable but at the same time less feasible. Their unique socio-economic and
governance problems better be understood for the NREGA to be effective.
The 200 backward districts, identified by the Planning Commission will pose
major challenges to the implementation of the NREGA because of their special
problems. They are the least developed areas of the country comprising mostly
marginal farmers and forest dwellers. In many of these districts poverty has
increased despite consistent focus of several poverty eradication programmes.
Governance has little or no presence in most of these districts.
The NREGA with the aim to reduce poverty is thus desirable for these districts.
The NREGA can target development using huge demand for casual jobs. However,
the absence of governance will make the implementation difficult. It is thus
imperative to understand the complex socioeconomic and governance challenges
of the backward districts. This will help implement the NREGA in an effective
way. And for the NREGA, these districts will decide its overall success.
A difficult constituency
Widespread poverty is a major feature with all these districts. A large number of
them are located in the arid and semi–arid regions with 94 districts covered under
the Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) and 8 districts covered under the
Desert Development Programme (DDP).
The socio economic indicators of most of these districts are generally below the
national average.
Out of these 200 districts, 148 have literacy lower than the national average
(63.58%) while the rate of female literacy in 154 districts is lower than the national
average of 54.16%. Also, the proportion of SC/ST population in most of these
areas is higher than in other areas. In 41 of them (which does not include Jamtara,
Latehar, Simdega, Sraikela-Kharsawan districts of Jharkhand for which census
2001 figures are not available) STs constitute majority of the population2.
These districts are also the most backward regions in terms of connectivity. There
are 21 districts in the Himalayan region and the North East that are completely
mountainous. Besides, a number of districts in Jharkhand, Chattisgarh,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa have hilly terrain.
There are also wide variations in the size and population of the districts.
Socio-economic profile
These districts are primarily agricultural and in 115 districts, the percentage of
agricultural labourers in the total rural working population is higher than the
national average of 33 percent, indicating the large-scale landlessness in these
districts combined with lack of effective employment opportunities in the non-
agricultural sector. The result is lower incomes for a large section of the rural
population contributing towards the backwardness of these districts apart from
agro–climatic and physiographic conditions

9).In conclusion:-

The NREGA is an ambitious programme with vast transformative potentials. It is

important that implementation mechanisms are strengthened to use its full
potential.
While there is abundant experience with India’s bureaucratic set-up, the Panchayati
Raj system is of relative recent vintage and project designers/ policy makers have
limited hands-on experience of its functioning. Often positions are taken from an
ideological perspective than from field experience.
The debate on merits of decentralisation needs to be set at rest and all efforts now
need to be made to strengthen the capacities of the decentralised institutions and to
improve their role clarity following principles of subsidiarity. Planning and
implementation of NRM based activities, community participation and
accountability are best addressed at the habitation level and Panchayats in most
states are still too remote an institution for these functions. The governance role of
Panchayats needs to be strengthened including accountability of officials at the
Zila Panchayat and the line departments to the Gram Panchayat. The civil society
has an important stake in the success of NREGA and in contributing to its success
which should be harnessed.