Background
Article 40 of the Constitution of India provides that the State shall take stepsto organize village Panchayats andendow them with such powers and authority toenable them to function as units of local self Government. However, even after the recommendations of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee and Ashoka Mehta Committee on Panchayats had been put into force, several ills continued to afflict the Panchayati Raj System in the country in the post independence period. There were long delays in holding of Panchayat elections,frequent suspension/supersession/dissolution of thePanchayat bodies, lack of functional and financialautonomy, inadequate representation of marginalized and weaker sections and meager, occasional andtied Government grants. This crippled the functioning of Panchayats and did not allow them to function asinstitutions of local Self Government as had beenenvisaged in the Constitution.
An imperative need accordingly emerged to enshrine in the Constitution of India, certain basic and essential features of local self-government so as to enable local bodies to function as institutions of self-governance both in planning and implementation of development programmes. ConsequentlyConstitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 was passed and was brought into force with effect from24.4.1993. The Act does not apply to Schedule V and VI Areas of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram, State of Nagaland, hill areas of the State of Manipur for which District Councils exist and the District of Darjeeling in the State of West Bengal.
The amendment Act has not yet been extended toJ&K.
The main features of the Act are –
(i) a 3-tiersystem of Panchayati Raj for all States havingpopulation of over 20 lakh;
(ii) Panchayat electionsregularly every 5 years;
(iii) reservation of seats forScheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women(not less than one-third of seats); (iv) appointmentof State Finance Commission to makerecommendations as regards the financial powersof the Panchayats an
(v) constitution of DistrictPlanning Committees to prepare development plansfor the district as a whole.
As per the Constitution(73rd Amendment) Act, the Panchayati Raj Institutions have been endowed with such powers and authority as may be necessary to function as institutions of self-government and contains provisions of devolution of powers and responsibilities upon Panchayats at the appropriate level with reference to
(a) the preparation of plans for economicdevelopment and social justice; and
(b) the implementation of such schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrustedto them.
Financial Powers of Panchayati Raj Institutions
Article 243-G of the Constitution of Indiaprovides that the States/UTs may, by law, endowthe Panchayats with such powers and authority asmay be necessary to enable them to function asinstitutions of self-government and to prepare plansfor economic development and social justice andtheir implementation including those in relation to thematters listed in the Eleventh Schedule.As per Article 243-H of the Constitution, StateLegislatures have been empowered to enact laws:X to authorise a Panchayat to levy, collect andappropriate some taxes, duties, tolls and fees;X to assign to the Panchayat, some taxes, duties,tolls levied and collected by the StateGovernment;
* to provide for making grants-in-aid to the Panchayats from the Consolidated Fund of theState; and
* to provide for constitution of such funds forPanchayats for crediting all money received by or
on behalf of Panchayats and also the with drawal of such money there from.The provisions of the 73rd Amendment Act canbe categorized into mandatory provisions and discretionary provisions. Keeping in view the factthat matters pertaining to local government a reprovided in the State List and thus fall within the jurisdiction of the State Government and given the vastness and the politico-administrative diversity ofthe country, States have been provided withdiscretionary powers on subjects like composition of the Panchayats, devolution of powers, functions,finances and system of auditing of panchayat Accounts etc. However, the Amendment makes itmandatory for the State Governments to holdelections regularly every five years, reserve seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on proportional basis, give not less than 33% reservation to women, constitute a State Finance Commissionand State Election Commission every five years.
The Panchayats (Extension to theScheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA,1996)
The Panchayats (Extension to the ScheduledAreas) Act, 1996 (PESA, 1996) was enacted andcame into operation on 24 December, 1996. ThisAct extends Panchayats to the tribal areas of nineStates, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand,Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa andRajasthan, which intends to enable tribal society toassume control over their own destiny to preserveand conserve their traditional rights over natural resources.
All the State Governments have enacted their State Legislations in pursuance with the PESA, 1996.However, the State Governments are required toamend all the relevant Acts/Rules to bring them inconformity with the provisions of the PESA, 1996.
Initiatives taken by the Ministry
A Conference of the Chief Ministers onPanchayati Raj was held on 2.8.1997 at VigyanBhavan, New Delhi, under the chairmanship of thethen Prime Minister to review the functioning of thePanchayati Raj Institutions where the outstandingissues like devolution of powers/functions andresponsibilities upon PRIs, setting up District PlanningCommittees, implementation of the reports of theState Finance Commissions, linkage of DRDAs withZilla Parishads, training to Panchayati Raj electedrepresentatives/functionaries, transparency in thefunctioning of these bodies were discussed in greatdetail.
The Ministry convened a Conference ofState Ministers of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj on May 13, 1998 and again inJuly, 2001 in which measures to strengthen PRIswere discussed.
Recent Initiatives
An All India Panchayat Adhyakshas Sammelanwas held in Delhi on 5-6 April, 2002 to build aconsensus on the measures needed for revitalizingand strengthening the Panchayati Raj System throughinteraction with elected representatives themselvesalongwith the States. The Sammelan, was attendedby about 1500 Chairpersons from the District,Intermediate and Village level Panchayats. TheSammelan was inaugurated by the then PrimeMinister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The then Leaderof Opposition Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the then FinanceMinister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, the then DefenceMinister Mr. George Fernandes, the then Ministerfor Information and Broadcasting, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj and several other State Panchayati RajMinisters attended the Sammelan. The Sammelan,inter-alia, resolved to augment the financial andadministrative powers of Panchayats to enable themto function as vibrant institutions of self government.The Prime Minister, while inaugurating the aboveSammelan, also emphasized the need for ushering inthe Second Generation of reforms on Panchayatsby further amending the Constitution (73rdAmendment) Act. The Sammelan urged all politicalparties and the Parliament to pass amendmentsconsidered necessary for the purpose.Accordingly, the Ministry of Rural Developmentinitiated the process of drafting further Amendmentsto the 73rd Amendment Act in consultation with theMinistry of Law, Department of Legal Affairs as wellas the Legislative Department.
The DraftAmendments proposed to Part IX of the Constitutionby the Ministry, inter-alia, suggested mandatorydevolution of certain subjects and taxes on Local Bodies by the State Governments. The matter is beingfurther processed by the Ministry.
Conference of State Ministers of RuralDevelopment & Panchayati Raj was held on 27and 28 January, 2003 in which the decisions andrecommendations of earlier meetings were reiteratedand States were urged in particular to ensure speedydevolution of funds, functions and functionaries andempower the Gram Sabhas. Official level meetingshave also been held regularly to monitor the progressin this regard.
A meeting of Chairpersons of SFCs, StateFinance Secretaries and Panchayati Raj Secretaries was held at NIRD, Hyderabad on 9.5.2003 in whichmatters relating to augmenting local body financeswas discussed and impressed upon the State Governments for early action towards this direction.A Performance Review Committee meeting of State Secretaries of Rural Development andPanchayati Raj were held on 19-20 May, 2003 atNIRD, Hyderabad in which progress in theimplementation of various Rural DevelopmentProgrammes as well as the provisions of Constitution(73rd Amendment) Act and PESA Act were reviewed.
Panchayat Awards for BestPerformance
To provide encouragement to Panchayats toexcel in performance of their role, the Ministry ofRural Development has also launched a scheme captioned the Award for Best Panchayat in April, 2003. This award is to be given to 6 DistrictPanchayats, one in each of the 6 zones, 12Intermediate Panchayats and 50 Gram Panchayatsin the country on an annual basis. The amount ofaward will be Rs.30 lakhs each for DistrictPanchayats, Rs.20 lakhs each for Intermediate Panchayats and Rs.10 lakhs each for GramPanchayats.
Empowered Sub-Committee of theNational Development Council
In March, 2003, an Empowered Sub-Committee on Financial and AdministrativeEmpowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions wasset up by Planning Commission in pursuance ofthe decision taken in the National DevelopmentCouncil with Minister of Rural Development asthe Chairperson and Minister of Finance andCompany Affairs, Deputy Chairman, PlanningCommission, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Minister of Tribal Affairs and Chief Ministers of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka,Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthanas its Members.
The Terms of Reference of theCommittee include, interalia
* to review of the action taken by State Governments for empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) as per the 73rdConstitutional Amendment Act so that they canfunction as effective institutions of local selfgovernments;X to work out modalities for strengthening the financial domain of the PRIs through transferof resources from the Centre and StateGovernments;
* to assess the capacity of the PRIs to raiserevenues and other resources and to developan action plan in this regard;
* to analyse the capability of PRIs at differentlevels to absorb the financial allocation madeto the PRIs under different schemes and todevelop a framework to ensure fiscal disciplineand financial accountability at different levelsof PRIs;
*to indicate measures needed to be taken toensure administrative control of the PRIs overthe State Government functionaries dealing withsubjects listed in the 11th Schedule of theConstitution;
*to evolve a framework for preparation andprojectisation of local plans that reflect the feltneeds and aspirations of the people so thatdevelopment process becomes a peoples’movement;
* to assess the training requirements and workout training models/pattern for elected PRIfunctionaries and Government officials includingthe PRIs staff; and
* to work out a mechanism for linking the Centralassistance to State with progress onempowerment of PRIs.
The Empowered Sub Committee has alreadysince met twice to discuss these issues.
10 Years of Enactment of PanchayatiRaj Act – Debate in ParliamentTo commemorate the completion of 10 yearsof the enactment of the Constitution (73rd and 74thAmendment) Acts, the then Minister of RuralDevelopment, Shri Kashiram Rana introduced aMotion in both the Houses of Parliament on the 24July, 2003 to review the implementation of Part IXand IXA (on Panchayats and Municipalities). Boththe Houses of Parliament witnessed a lively debateon the subject spanning one/two days with a recordnumber of 39 speakers from almost all politicalparties having taken part in the debate in Lok Sabhaplacing their view point before the House in mostforceful manner. Similar intensity of debate waswitnessed in the Rajya Sabha. Both the Houses wereunanimous in acknowledging the achievements so farand expressing the need to further strengthen PRIsas envisaged in the Constitution. All issues whichconstitute the heart of the functioning of PRIs as Institutions of self governance such as those relating
to augmenting the financial and administrativepowers of the Panchayats by devolving the 3Fs i.e.funds, functions and functionaries in respect ofsubjects given in the XI Schedule on PRIs,empowering the Gram Sabhas as bodies of SocialAudit, operationalising District Planning Committeesto give effect to grassroot level planning formed partof the debate. Other suggestions related to therotation of seats of Chairpersons and the manner ofelections to the post of Chairperson at theIntermediate Panchayat and Zilla Panchayat level.Another Conference of State Secretaries ofRural Development and Panchayati Raj was heldon 3.9.2003 at National Institute of Public Financeand Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi with a view toformulate submission of proposals to Twelfth FinanceCommission towards grants to PRIs.
A meeting of Chairman, Scheduled Areas andScheduled Tribes Commission with Secretary (RD)was held on 30.9.2003 where implementation ofprovisions of the PESA Act was reviewed.A Conference of Project Directors of DRDAswas held on 9-10 October, 2003 in which a reviewwas taken regarding implementation of theprovisions of Constitution (73rd Amendment) Actand PESA Act by the State Governments/ UnionTerritories. The need was emphasized for speedingup action towards devolution of funds, functions andfunctionaries, setting up of State FinanceCommissions (SFCs) and District PlanningCommittees (DPCs).
With a view to determine the measures neededto augment the Consolidated Fund of a State tosupplement the resources of Panchayats andMunicipalities on the basis of recommendation ofSFCs, a proposal in the form of memorandum hasbeen submitted to the Twelfth Finance Commission.The Consultative Committee for the Ministryof Rural Development to discuss the issues relatingto Panchayati Raj was held on 11.12.2003 in theParliament House under the Chairmanship of thenMinister of Rural Development, Shri KashiramRana.
Performance Review Committee meeting ofSecretaries, Rural Development and Panchayati Rajwas held on 18-19 December, 2003 at Kolkatawhere implementation of provision of Constitution(73rd Amendment) Act and PESA Act werereviewed.
Research & Development Work
A Research Advisory Committee headed bythe Secretary (Rural Development) approvesproposals from voluntary organizations/institutionson Action Research studies related to PanchayatiRaj. The Ministry, apart from funding somecontinued studies, commissioned studies on issuessuch as :–
- Assessment of PESA;
- Decentralised Management of Rural Energy :Building Capacities of PRIs;Y Panchayati Raj & Natural ResourceManagement Post 73rd Amendment :Institutisonal Issues & Future Strategies.
Panchayat Development & Training(PD&T)
The success of the Panchayati Raj System hingeson the extent to which the capability of electedrepresentatives are developed to discharge theirfunctions and responsibilities effectively. The Schemeof Panchayat Development and Training (PD&T) isa Centrally sponsored scheme under which Centralassistance is provided to the States, NGOs andother institutions to supplement their efforts to imparttraining to the elected and official functionaries ofthe Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Under the Scheme, the States are released funds for holistic training plans for training of PRIelected representatives and rural developmentfunctionaries with 75% of the expenditure met bythe Centre (25% additional assistance in case of hilly and North Eastern States). The Ministry has so farapproved such action plans of 22 States. An amountof Rs.21.61 crore was released during the year2003-2004 under the Scheme.
In a report on auditing institution of the State for making democracy work, the section on Panchayats become critically important as the introduction of the Panchayat Raj system through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment is the most definitive step towards re-energizing democracy in the history of independent India. Unfortunately, this laudable initiative for decentralisation of governance has been circumvented by the alliance of elite political interests, change resistant bureaucracy and the rent seeking class, which has well entrenched interests in the continuation of a colonial centralised state structure.
The 73rd Constitutional Amendment and ensuing state Panchayat Acts are progressive in nature and provide substantial space for responsive and participatory governance. Importantly, special provision for women, OBCs, SCs and STs are in built in the Act to protect and further the interest of vulnerable and marginalised sections. The Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act provides special provision for function of Panchayats so as to protect and promote the tribal interests in accordance with the spirit of the scheduled areas as enshrined in the constitution. However, the actual implementation of the Act tells an entirely different story. In spite of the odds, the Panchayats generate some hope in a deeply troubled system of democracy. It also presents many micro examples of effective governance.
Adjuncts of the state governments: The Panchayats function at the mercy of state governments and are usually treated as mere adjuncts of a states politico-istrative machinery. Inspite of the fact that Panchayat are democratically elected bodies and are as much a constitutional body as Parliament or state assemblies.
Broad and representative democratic leadership: India now has constitutionally mandated 232,332 village panchayats, 6,000 intermediate panchayats and 534 zilla panchayats. The three tiers of these elected bodies consist of as many as 27,75,858 village panchayat members, 1,44,491 members of the intermediate panchayat and 15,067 members of the district panchayat.
Growing women leadership: Women head about 175 District panchayats, more than 2,000 Block panchayats and about 85,000 Gram panchayats. The southern states are fairing better in promoting women leadership compared to the northern states. Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh are some of the states, which have more than 33 per cent women leadership clearly indicating that some women have been elected from general seats.
Parliamentary review Committee on local self-governance: A decade after the 73rd and 74th constitutional Amendments, a Parliamentary Committee was constituted to review their impact and progress. This committee of the 13th Lok Sabha, chaired by Chandrakant Khare, comprising of 30 members from Lok Sabha and 13 members from Rajya Sabha, reviewed the 10 years of implementation of the Amendments and expressed that this period has witnessed a willful violation of Constitution with respect to devolution of rights to Panchayats. The committee also expressed unhappiness over the Action Taken Report presented by Ministry of Rural Development where the replies furnished by the Government were evasive, vague and inconclusive.
Ineffective fiscal decentralisation: State Finance Commissions (SFCs) have been constituted and have given their recommendations. However, only four states-Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal-have largely accepted the recommendations of their SFCs. In other states only some of the recommendations have been accepted. The total fund on the 29 subjects, roughly calculated to be Rs 72,000 crore, is only minimally devolved to the Panchayats. The central ministry has retained a large portion of approximately Rs 30,000 crore and an equally substantial sum is kept at the state level, which leaves only 5 to 10 per cent to be devolved to the Panchayats. Panchayats have invariably failed to generate their own revenue and are dependent on grants from the state and the centre to fulfill their responsibility. One important reason for poor resource generation by Panchayats is inadequate control of PRIs on natural, physical and human resources within their jurisdiction. Unfortunately, fiscal devolution is increasingly dependent on political pressures, market forces driven by contractors and, plain and simple corruption.
Parallel initiatives undermining Panchayats: With the evolution of PRIs, various parallel developmental schemes and institutions have been initiated directly undermining the legitimacy and role of Panchayats. MPLADS is one such scheme. It is worth noting that many of the works undertaken under the MPLAD scheme duplicate the development work taken up by the Panchayats. It is important to underscore that PRIs are starved of funds and the financial allocation under MPLADS was increased in 1999-2000 to Rs 2 crores per year for every MP. The centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) also undermine the PRIs. The share of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) in the plan budget of central ministries has increased to 70 per cent as against 30 per cent in the early 80s. The state governments are also promoting special interest groups with vertical hierarchy and parallel authority to that of Panchayats, such as Janmabhoomi in Andhra Pradesh and Gram Vikas Samiti in Haryana. The last two to three years have been most unfortunate as the previous NDA government attempted to strengthen District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) as the principal organ at the district level for handling huge funds.
Complex procedures and lack of capacities: The governance procedures adopted for the Panchayats are extremely complex and are often a duplication of the state government rules and procedures. Particularly, the procedures of accounting adopted are very complex for the rural masses. This issue gets further compounded by the lack of skills and knowledge of the panchayat members. A study by Unnati in Rajasthan found that 40 per cent of the elected representatives were illiterates and 90 per cent of reserved category panchayat heads were elected for the first time leading to poor capacities for performing the role of panchayat representatives.
Panchayats managing primary education: Some experiences of PRI managing the local primary education are positive indicating that decentralisation and de-bureaucratisation of education can be effective and would be able to meet the local demand through locally available human resource.
Health care and Panchayats: Involvement of local bodies in public health delivery is almost negligible. Unfortunately, the capacities of local bodies for managing public health and sanitation are weak and as a result the local bodies would find it difficult to evolve and manage the public health system. Nevertheless, the partial success of experiments like Jan Swasthya Rakshak (JSR) model in MP demonstrates that community-based primary and preventive health management is possible and its institutionalization with Panchayats can make it sustainable, replicable and equitable.
Reluctance to operationalise PESA: The PESA Act is one of the most potent legislative measures of the recent times, which recognises the tribal peoples mode of living, aspirations, their culture and traditions. But the fact that in most of the state the enabling rules are not in place more than eight years after the adoption of the Act suggests that the state governments are reluctant to operationalise the PESA mandate.
Ignoring the spirit of PESA: The state legislations have omitted some of the fundamental principles without which the spirit of PESA can never be realised. For instance, the premise in PESA that state legislations on Panchayats shall be in consonance with customary laws and among other things traditional management practices of community resources is ignored by most of the state laws.
State legislations weaken Gram Sabhas: The Gram Sabhas in the PESA Act are central pillars of governance entrusted with significant role and substantive powers. However, the state legislations, perhaps by design, through a twist of legal language have taken away powers from the Gram Sabhas.
PESA and water resources: As per PESA, the power to plan and manage minor water bodies exclusively vests in the Panchayats at appropriate level. However, no legal definition of the term minor water bodies exists in the statute books. The states in their conformity legislations have also not defined the term leading to ambiguity and scope of interpretation by the bureaucracy.
PESA and land resources: The PESA Act mandates that there should be consultation before land acquisition for development projects and before resettling or rehabilitating persons affected by such projects. Also the Gram Sabhas and Panchayats have the power to prevent alienation of land in the Scheduled Areas and to take appropriate action to restore any alienated land of Scheduled Tribes. However, state governments have not laid rules in this regard.
What is needed today is the political will and wisdom necessary to strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions. Promoting necessary devolution of funds, functions and functionaries is a necessary condition but not sufficient in itself. What is called for is serious intervention in capacity building of elected representatives. The acid test of displayed political will be its willingness to make these institutions effective and accountable.
