Page 52 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 2: Major Segments of Indian Society

PRIs were given power to impose taxes, duties and fees and were assigned their share in taxes Notes
collected by the state government. The grants-in-aid were also released to them. (8) Election
Commission was empowered to conduct panchayat elections. (9) State legislatures have been
given discretion to provide for the reservation of OBCs and association of MPs/MLAs in panchayats.
(10) While before the amendment, the Sarpanchs of gram panchayats were made members of the
Panchayat Samitis and Pradhans of Panchayat Samitis were made members of Zila Parishads,
after the amendment, this provision of becoming exofficio members of panchayats at higher level
was withdrawn. However, the state governments were given the discretion of associating Sarpanchs
with Panchayat Samitis and Pradhans with Zila Parishads.
The positive consequences of these changes after making the Amendment (in 1993) are supposed
to be: (1) Structural change regarding direct elections at all three levels will improve the working
of the panchayats. Earlier, there were no direct elections to Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads.
All Sarpanchas constituted members of the Panchayat Samiti and all Pradhans of the Panchayat
Samitis became members of the Zila Parisliads. The role and the responsibilities of the directly
elected members will now widen. (2) Increasing powers of panchayats and financial resources will
improve the position of panchayats. (3) Reservation for SCs, STs and women will enable weaker
sections to participate more actively in the panchayat system. (4) The new structure will enable
panchayats to contribute to planning from below, mobilise local resources, evoke large scale
community participation, reduce corruption, and improve the quality of development effort.
The negative effect could be: (i) direct elections may check vertical interaction among panchayats
at three levels; and (ii) rotation of reserved seats might reduce the commitment of the representatives
to carry on long-term development work.
Hooja and Hooja (1998: 474-75) have pointed out several issues which need to be studied for
successful functioning of the panchayats. These are: (1) What should be the level of decentralised
planning? (2) Since District Planning Committee would now become very large, what should be
the organisational set-up to operationalise decentralised planning and implementation? (3) What
functions would be most appropriate at which level in the multi-level framework? (4) What changes
would be required at the state government level? (5) What safeguards are necessary and feasible
to keep local elite or vested interests from capturing panchayats or from distorting the decentralised
planning process? (6) When planning and implementing bodies are the same (i.e., village panchayats
and panchayat samitis), how can it be ensured that the planner would not fix targets for himself
which are easy to achieve rather than more ambitious ones? (7) How can possible conflicts between
different panchayat levels and the state level be avoided?
The Progress After the Constitutional Amendment
How serious are the state government officials in making Panchayati Raj functional? Their non-
seriousness is indicated in the following manner: (1) Bureaucrats are unwilling to transfer power
to panchayats. (2) They are always reluctant to release funds. (3) Officers do not show any faith in
elected representatives. (4) Some states have not yet even conducted elections, though panchayats
were supposed to have come into existence within one year after the enforcement of the 73rd
Constitutional Amendment in 1993. Though Zila Pramukhs are to be Chairmen of the District
Rural Development Agencies, (DRDAs) which run all poverty alleviation programmes, yet in
practice they will only preside over the meetings of the Governing Councils of the DRDAs; the
financial powers would rest with the Collector who would continue to be the chairman of the
Executive Committee of the DRDA. Thus, relationship between panchayats and DRDAs needs to
be clearly specified. One fails to understand why the elected bodies should not have fully
independent charge of development plans and allowed to take initiative so that people at large
participate fully in the development process.
It may be concluded that the pragmatic philosophy of miniaturised participative democracy, where
every man matters, is the cornerstone of developmental dynamics. The growing consensus is that
rural development can be accelerated if people’s resources are mobilised and they are prompted to
take part in making the decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods (The Third World: Tomorrow,
36). At present, there is deep factionalism in our villages. Misuse of funds, oppression of the

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 47