This article has been written by Akhil Ranjan Pathak, a student of M.S. Ramaiah College of Law
An Overview :
Panchayati Raj System is something which has been existed into the society from the ancient times and it has also evolved from ancient times till now in a very positive way. Panchayati Raj is the system which helps the rural areas/villages to develop. It is basically a three-tier administration which helps the village to grow and develop. Panchayat or also known as self government is basically not a idea of post – independence it is a idea from British era only.
In British era , these panchayats or self government is used as elected councils with executive and judicial power. With the evolution of time , panchayat have also evolved, earlier panchayat elections were only held between the upper caste of the people over rest of the village people.
HISTORY OF PANCHAYAT:
Panchayat were not something which has made after independence. But it is something which has been there since the British era. Earlier panchayats were taken as the council elections in which the most reputed peoples of the village were elected over the other people of the village. But with the evolution of time people started getting education regarding all these things. These panchayats also becoming known by one other name self – government. This self government was basically formed between 1957 and 1986 through the formation of 4 committees and these are-
- Balwant Raj Committee (1957)
- Ashok Mehta Committee (1978)
- GVK Rao Committee (1985)
- LM Singhvi Committee (1986)
Through the 73rd Amendment Act , two new sections were added to the constitution and those new sections were IX and IX-A in the year 1992.
DURATION OF PANCHAYAT:
India is a democratic country , every election should be conducted in India at a equal interval. In India, the duration of every election is termed at every five years, every election should be conducted at every five years in order to run the country in a free and fair manner. So therefore, election for panchayat in India is conducted at every five years.
RESERVATION IN PANCHAYAT:
In India the reservation system has been originally granted in the constitution of India. In India, every election has to do some reservation as it is mandatory . According to clause 3 of the Article 243D of the Indian constitution there should be one – third seats should be reserved for women, schedule caste and schedule tribes in the panchayat election. Not less than one – third should be reserved for these peoples.
The reservation for these people is done so that they can get equal opportunities in comparison to other people. When these reservations are done then there is a male dominating society. At the time of independence , schedule castes and schedule tribes were not given any importance in the society , so in order to give importance to them reservation for these people were made.
ROLES AND RESPONSBILITIES OF PANCHAYAT:
So, basically panchayat or self – government is divided into three tier administrative system :-
- Village panchayat
- Panchayat samiti
- Zilla parishad
Now we will discuss these three in detail:
Whenever , we talk about the structure of the panchayat the lowest unit which comes is the
“village panchayat”. This unit comes up when the population of the villages happens to be too small , this panchayat body is also accountable for the general body of the village also known as gram Sabha. This gram Sabha at least meet twice in a year to discuss about the village and how the growth of the village can be done. Now , we will talk about the persons who can contest election for these village panchayats.
So , the people who contest elections for these village panchayats are no other than the village people only.
Now , moving forward with another type of self help government and that is panchayat samiti. As we know that village panchayat is for a small number of people or small number of group. But panchayat samiti is for the larger number of people or larger number of group. By saying larger number of people or group it means I am talking about talukas or mandals .
It works for the villages at the tehsils and are so called development blocks , it is also called panchayat of panchayats. The work of the panchayat samiti is to collect all the prospective plans made at the gram Sabha level in order to collect the funding for the same and implementing those plans. As this panchayat samiti works at the block level, so it can also prioritize the works which should be able to help in the development of the villages.
Now as we move towards our last level of government in panchayat system. This last level is known as zilla parishad. As just like panchayat samiti is the link between village panchayat and zill a parishad , just like same zilla parishad is the link between gram Sabha and state government. Zilla parishad is also known by different names in different states such as – District development council , Zilla parishad and Mohkuma parishad.
The main work or responsibility of a zilla parishad is to look around all the developmental works under the district commissioner. It also supervises the work of gram sabha as well, the most important responsibility of the zilla parishad is that it advises the state government regarding the working of the gram sabha or village panchayat of their own jurisdiction.
CONCLUSION :
So, in last I would like to conclude my article on Panchayati raj system with the provision of Constitution. The Panchayat system has evolved very much from the time of independence till now and in future also it will definitely evolve.
In the present time , panchayat is giving opportunity to the lower background of people. So, that no one is deprived from society.
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