Karnataka - Belgaum   

Set up panel for panchayats: B.R. Patil

Belgaum: All India Panchayat Parishad (AIPP) general secretary and former deputy chairman of Legislative Council B.R. Patil underscored the need for setting up a commission for administrative reforms for panchayat raj system in the State.

He said the objective of the panchayat raj system was not being realised for various reasons, including interference of legislators, red-tapism and lack of understanding of the panchayat system among the people.

The proposed commission should not only be asked to suggest reforms but also be vested with the powers to monitor the system. Mr. Patil reminded the audience about the Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of gram swaraj (village republics) where each village was a self-reliant entity. Community development programme, which was started in 1952, took a concrete shape when Balwantrai Mehta put in his efforts to achieve local-self governance through organisational set up called “panchayat” at the village level and a representative body of the village so that it took decisions on the implementation of various government programmes and schemes, select beneficiaries and take up need-based programmes for the development of the village. It was a significant step towards decentralisation of administration. This led to the Centre passing the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in 1992, which came into effect from April 20, 1993.

He said the panchayat raj was meant to achieve self-governance where the community through its democratically elected panchayat body could take decisions to protect its socio-economic interests while the Government would fund, co-ordinate and ensure proper implementation of the schemes.

But these objectives had been forgotten because of corruption, unhealthy politics, nepotism, laidback attitude and mismanagement of funds.

There were 5,650 gram panchayats with 91,400 elected members. In addition to these, there were 27 zilla panchayats with 1,005 elected members. To manage such mammoth set-up, the State Government should facilitate a democratic form of governance.

Mr. Patil said the term of president and vice-president of the panchayat bodies should be fixed for five years as against 20 months now. Elections should be held on party basis so that the contestants were identified by political ideologies and development programmes.

The role of legislators should be confined to debates on policies, programmes, schemes and legislations, instead of interfering with the working of panchayats.

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