how to become strong panchayats

Shivendra Rana

Gandhiji believed that the soul of India resides in the villages. If we are dreaming of building a new India, then it should start with the development of villages. The medium of this development can be made only by the third government i.e. Panchayats. The tradition of Panchayats in India is very ancient. Panchayats have existed in every phase of Indian history. Panchayats represent a lifestyle based on five elements namely dialogue, consent, cooperation, participation and co-operation. There was a lot of talk of Gandhism in the Constituent Assembly of independent India, but they were not accepted wholeheartedly. The Gandhism, which considered Panchayats as the ‘true democracy’ and the ‘starting point of freedom’, was left to the discretion of the State Governments under the Directive Principles on the pretext of resource and time constraints. Constitutional status and protection were given to Panchayats through the Seventy-third Constitutional Amendment Act (1992). The basis of this amendment bill was the recommendations of the VN Gadgil committee constituted in 1988. But despite this the panchayats could not give satisfactory results.

The first major problem of Panchayats is the non-availability of their open meetings. The correct way is that every time there should be a complete meeting of the village and whatever decisions are taken, they should be taken in open meetings. The statement of the Principal, Secretary that the quorum for the meeting is not being fulfilled is completely wrong because the villagers live in the villages only. Then the matter of his not being present in the meeting is beyond comprehension. The reality is that information is not given to the people so that the officials can take their favorable decisions. Obviously, this would not have been possible without the support of the administration. For this, there are appropriate measures that before the meeting, it should be made mandatory to broadcast information about this through mobile or other communication mediums. Along with this, if necessary, the government can also get the videos of these meetings made.

The second important fact is that even today the reforms of Panchayats are not in the priority list of the State Governments. The Ashok Mehta Committee constituted in 1977 had suggested that the state governments should not encroach upon the Panchayati Raj Institutions. But the states feel that the smooth development of panchayats can cut down on their jurisdiction. The biggest means of controlling the panchayats are the employees of the state governments. At the village level, governments have appointed employees like primary teachers, panchayat secretaries, sweepers, tubewell operators, Anganwadi, Asha Bahu. But they do not consider themselves accountable to the rural people. Most of the newly elected pradhans have the same complaint that if they want to do any good work, the Panchayat Secretary creates hurdles in it. A Panchayat Secretary is in charge of two to three villages. Corruption also flourishes in Panchayats.

There are three constitutionally recognized governments in India – the Central Government, the State Government and the Panchayat. When the Central and State Governments have their own cadres, a separate cadre should be created for rural services as well. Such a service class which is specialized to work at the village level itself, but at the same time they should be appointed from the local population. After all, what is the problem in the selection of local people for rural service cadre? Rural cadre may be selected at the state, district or region level, but these employees will remain in the village and their easy availability will be ensured. This service cadre will prove to be reliable for their villages. Their monitoring can be done by a government agency, a third party or a civil society.

Empowerment of Gram Sabhas is a powerful weapon in terms of participation, accountability, transparency and fairness of disadvantaged groups. But till date many states have not clarified the rights of Gram Sabha in their respective states. In many states, the status of panchayats is that of subordinate bodies, so village heads can be seen regularly circling the block offices for funds and other technical approvals. The big problem of Panchayats is also the bureaucracy which looks down upon the problems of the village level and adopts a neglectful attitude towards it. The GVK Rao Committee was formed by the Planning Commission in 1985.

The conclusion of this committee was that the development process has become bureaucratic and disconnected from Panchayat Raj and this process of bureaucracy has weakened the Panchayati institutions. One, the rural society is not already aware of its rights due to illiteracy and lack of awareness, from above, the non-cooperation and arrogant attitude of the bureaucracy increases the distance and mistrust between them and the public which is fatal for cooperative democracy.

The question is of conferring real judicial powers to the Panchayats. The LM Singhvi Committee constituted in 1986 recommended the establishment of Nyaya Panchayats for village groups. Many jurists have also been of the belief that usually after fighting the case for ten to twenty years and spending ten to twenty lakh rupees, the final decisions taken by the courts do not end the enmity, but last for generations. But the decisions taken by the panchayats and people accept it by hugging each other, the enmity ends forever. This saves people’s money and saves time and energy of court and police-administration. At the same time the harmony of the village is also maintained.

One of the major problems of panchayats is their reluctance to use financial resources. Of course, Panchayats have limited financial powers, but they have the power to collect taxes for markets, fairs, other available services like public toilets as well as the power to levy taxes on property in the form of significant power. But the reality is that very few panchayats are able to exercise these financial powers. In fact, it is a difficult task for the Panchayat representatives to collect taxes from the people of their society. This is likely to affect their personal relationships. Hence Panchayats avoid such taxation by opting for an easier option. The result of which comes in the form of shrinking of their financial sources.

Apart from this, about 20 percent of the panchayats in the country do not have their own office buildings. Only about twenty-five percent of the panchayats are such that they have the system to work on computers. Apart from this, most of the members of Panchayats are from uneducated or semi-educated background. Because of this they are often ignorant of their responsibilities, rights and functioning of Panchayats. This also adversely affects the performance capacity of the Gram Panchayats.

The Constitution envisages that the reservation of posts for women and Dalits will pave the way for their empowerment. The greed for power and public money has found an alternative. Today the tradition of grabbing positions by leading women and dalits has started. Empowerment means economic independence and freedom of decision making. But unfortunately this goal does not seem to be fully achieved through Panchayats.

Gandhiji believed that the soul of India resides in the villages. If we are dreaming of building a new India, then it should start with the development of villages. The medium of this development can be made only by the third government i.e. Panchayats. Therefore, ignoring the development of Panchayats will prove fatal for the construction of New India.