LOCAL BODIES

LOCAL BODIES

PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS

Panchayati Raj is the system of local self-government in rural India. It consists of the Panchayati Raj Institutions through which the self-government of villages is realized.

Evolution of Panchayati Raj System:

Salient Features of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992: This act has added a new Part-IX to the Constitution, titled as ‘The Panchayats’ and consists of provisions from Articles 243 to 243 O. In addition, the act has also added a new Eleventh Schedule to the Constitution containing 29 functional items of the panchayats. It stipulates for certain compulsory provisions which are obligatory on the part of the State Governments to incorporate in their respective Acts, while others have been left at the discretion of State legislatures to make suitable provisions in their Act.

1. Applicability: The provisions are applicable to the Union territories. But, the President may direct that they would apply to a Union territory subject to such exceptions and modifications as he may specify.
2. Mandatory Provisions:

• Gram Sabha: Establishment of ‘Gram Sabha’ at the village level comprising of persons registered in the electoral rolls relating to a village comprised within the area of Panchayat.
• Three-tier System: Establishment of a three-tier system of Panchayat, at the village, intermediate, and district levels, in all the States and Union Territories (UTs) except in those having a population of less than twenty lakhs where Panchayats at intermediate level need not be constituted.
• Elected office-holders:
  • Members: All the members of panchayats at the village, intermediate, and district levels shall be elected directly by the people.
  • Chairperson: The chairperson of panchayats at the intermediate and district levels shall be elected indirectly—by and from amongst the elected members thereof. However, the chairperson of a panchayat at the village level shall be elected in such manner as the state legislature determines.
• Right to vote: All members of the Panchayat whether or not directly elected shall have the right to vote in the meetings of the Panchayats.

• Reservation:
  • STs/STs: Reservation of seats for SCs/STs in proportion of their population to the total population in the panchayat area. Further, the state legislature shall provide for the reservation of offices of chairperson in the panchayat at the village or any other level for the SCs and STs.
  • Women: Not less than one-third of the total number of seats of the total number of seats for women. Further, not less than one-third of the total number of offices of chairperson in the panchayats at each level shall be reserved for women. Some states allow reservation to women to the extent of 50% like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc.
• Duration of Panchayats: The act provides for a five-year term of office to the panchayat at every level. However, it can be dissolved before the completion of its term.
• Disqualification: A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as or for being a member of panchayat if he is so disqualified, (a) under any law for the time being in force for the purpose of elections to the legislature of the state concerned, or (b) under any law made by the state legislature.
• Age of contesting elections: 21 years to be the minimum age for contesting elections to panchayats.
• State Election Commission: The superintendence, direction, and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to the panchayats shall be vested in the state election commission.
• State Finance Commission: The governor of a state shall, after every five years, constitute a finance commission to review the financial position of the panchayats.

3. Voluntary Provisions:

• Reservation of Backward Classes: State Legislature can make any provision for reservation of seats in any panchayat or offices of chairperson in the panchayat at any level in favour of backward classes.
• Powers and functions: The state legislature may endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self-government.
• Finances: The state legislature may authorise or assign a panchayat to levy, collect, and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls, and fees; provide for making grants-in-aid to the panchayats from the consolidated fund of the state; and provide for the constitution of funds for crediting all moneys of the panchayats.
• Audit of accounts: The state legislature may make provisions with respect to the maintenance of accounts by the panchayats and the auditing of such accounts.
• Representation to members of Parliament: Giving representation to members of the Parliament (both the Houses) and the state legislature (both the Houses) in the panchayats at different levels falling within their constituencies.

4. Exempted States and Areas: The act does not apply to the states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram and certain other areas. These areas include the scheduled areas and the tribal areas in the states; the hill areas of Manipur for which district councils exist; and Darjeeling district of West Bengal for which Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council exists.

Importance of PRIs:

1. Political benefits:

• Political empowerment: Panchayat Institutions are the vehicles of political empowerment of people at the grassroots level for shaping their own destiny.
• Political consciousness: It enabled a large number of people to acquire leadership at local levels, especially women (since one-third of seats are reserved for the women candidates).

• Strengthening democracy: It has provided opportunity for the circulation of political ideas which is very essential for maintaining democratic forms in their true spirit.
• Promoting real democracy: If democracy is to be real and meaningful, the locus of power should shift as close to the citizen as possible in order to facilitate constant vigil and timely intervention.
• Direct democracy: Since all eligible voters of the village can participate in the Gram Sabha, it is vital as a decision-making body at the bottom. This process reflects the practice of direct democracy at the village level.

2. Governance benefits:

• Principle of Subsidiarity: Local decision-making improves efficiency, promotes self-reliance at the local level, encourages competition, and nurtures innovation.
• Efficiency in public service delivery: The decision-making process of the panchayats is such that the Gram Sabha discusses the development work plans of the GP called Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) and the elected representatives execute the plans. Formulation of GPDP improves the efficiency of public services.
• Function as executive: Panchayats implement close to 80% of the rural development schemes evolved by the governments, making them a unique elected body that also functions as an executive.
• Social Audit: Greater transparency in the selection of beneficiaries and implementation of programmes through social audit due to Gram Sabha/Panchayat.

3. Economic Benefits:

• Fiscal responsibility: People will be encouraged to raise more resources only when there is a greater link between the taxes and user fees levied and the services that are delivered. This is possible only when service delivery is locally managed to the extent feasible and citizens, as stakeholders, are directly empowered to raise resources and manage functions.
• Planning and development: As units of planning and development, whether at the district or lower level, Panchayati Raj institutions have contributed substantially. They help in infrastructure building such as roads, sanitation, and water facilities.

4. Social Benefit:

• Breaking hierarchies: PRIs have become a powerful tool to resolve contradictory caste and local interests and arrive at a common understanding.
• Empowerment of vulnerable sections: Reservation provided to SCs/STs and women helps in providing a voice to these sections.
  • Women representation: Compared to a mere 9% representation in Parliament and State Assemblies, a staggering 49% of elected representatives are women. There are 14 lakh elected women representatives now, out of which 86,000 women chair their local bodies.
• Increased availability of public goods: In districts with female sarpanches/pradhans, significantly greater investments are made in drinking water. Also, SC sarpanches/pradhans are more likely to invest in public goods in SC hamlets—an important change in the severely segregated villages of India [R. Chattopadhyay and E. Duflo].
• Reduced crimes: Having female political representation in local governments makes women more likely to come forward and report crimes, which can help in reducing crimes.
• Active citizenry: Once decision-making and its consequences are integrally linked at the local level, people can better appreciate that hard choices need to be made. Such awareness promotes greater responsibility, enlightened citizenship, and the maturing of democracy.
• Environment protection: The Gram Panchayat, being the most representative body at the village level, can play a crucial role in maintaining land, water bodies, and promoting the sustainable use of natural resources.

• Dealing with social calamities: Tackling a social calamity is not like fighting a war which works best when a leader can use top-down power. In contrast, what is needed for dealing with a social calamity is participatory governance and alert public discussion — Amartya Sen.

5. Role of PRIs during COVID-19 Pandemic:

• Panchayats as frontline institutions:
  • Coordinating with the government: In Kerala, the third-tier institution played a crucial role in tracing, organizing health check-up camps, sanitation, and social distancing messages, among others.
  • Infrastructure: They are proactive in readying the infrastructure to treat people with the help of NGOs, ASHAs, etc.
  • Bridge between community and government: They have emerged as the bridge between the decision-makers and the community that would have to adapt or implement such decisions.
  • Trust-creation: Panchayats, by helping doctors and nurses explain to villagers about their diseases and treatment in the language they understood, reduced fear. In times of COVID-19, the trust developed by Panchayati Raj will be able to test, trace, and treat under the current scenario and contain the crisis.
  • First point of contact: PRIs are more closely connected to the public and better able to navigate context-specific local conditions and are often far more knowledgeable about local needs, better able to mobilize key local actors, and better positioned to monitor activities at the grassroots and anticipate and resolve site-specific challenges that arise.
• Providing goods and services:
  • Sustaining agricultural activities: Ensuring the labour supply and availability of critical food supply chains in villages.
  • Provision of Food: They helped to arrange massive movements of food grains for community kitchens along with SHGs.
  • Awareness Generation: Gram panchayats, along with local volunteers, non-profits, SHGs, and other community-based organizations, conducted awareness generation drives on the symptoms and preventive measures of COVID-19.

Issues:

1. Functions:

• Devolution of functions: While some states like Kerala, West Bengal, and Karnataka have devolved as many as 26 departments to Panchayats, several states have devolved only as few as three functions.
• Parallel bodies: Many states have created parallel bodies to take over the functions assigned for panchayats. For example, the Haryana government created a Rural Development Agency under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister to oversee the works of local bodies.
• Status of Gram Sabha: A number of states have not defined the powers of Gram Sabhas nor laid down any procedures for the functioning of these bodies or penalties for officials.
• Lack of stake in making laws: Only 6 states have Legislative Councils at present, which include members of local bodies. This restricts the role of local bodies in the formation of state laws.
• Lack of specific functions: The lack of specification of functions and powers between the three levels results in a feeling—at each level—that the other two have greater powers and resources.

2. Functionaries:

• Excessive control by bureaucracy: In some states, the Gram Panchayats have been placed in a position of subordination. Hence, the Gram Panchayat Sarpanches have to spend an extraordinary amount of time obtaining sanctions and approvals.
• Lack of capacity building: Many elected representatives remain totally dependent on officials to perform even basic tasks. This is more evident in the poorest and backward areas where the elected representatives find it tough to perform well in implementing rural development schemes.
• Illiteracy: A large number of elected representatives of PRIs are semiliterate or illiterate and know little about their roles and responsibilities, programmes, procedures, and systems.
• Challenges faced by women representatives: Sarpanch Pati syndrome, lack of leadership skills, illiteracy, lack of awareness, and a discouraging attitude of family members.
• Lack of horizontal and vertical convergence of action: Due to different departments and schemes under which they are appointed with specific mandates.
• Recruitment: Lack of criteria for the appointment of non-elected staff at panchayats.
• Other issues in human resources: Insufficiency of staff; inadequacy of qualifications; lack of rigor in recruitment; poor terms and conditions of service; low incentives for performance; and lack of adequate training (Sumit Bose Committee).

3. Finances:

• Tied nature of funds: The activities stated under a certain scheme are not always appropriate for all parts of the district. This results in unsuitable activities being promoted or an under-spend of the funds.
• Dependence on government funding: The major sources of income for local governments like property tax, etc., are woefully inadequate to meet their obligations. This asymmetry between taxation power and the responsibility to provide civic amenities necessitates the transfer of funds from the state to the local governments.
  • The own source of revenue for Panchayats as a share of total public sector own-source revenue is less than 1%.
• Reluctance to use fiscal powers: Very few Panchayats use their fiscal power to levy and collect taxes. The argument made by Panchayat heads is that it is difficult to levy tax on your own constituency, especially when you live in the community.
• Non-implementation of State Finance Commission Recommendations: As they are non-binding, they are not implemented in letter and spirit.
• Inter-state variation: Panchayats in states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka do collect some direct taxes, while villages in states like Uttar Pradesh almost entirely depend on transfer funds (Economic Survey 2017-18).

4. Other Issues:

• Hierarchical nature: The three tiers do not operate as functional authorities. The tendency of the higher structure to treat the lower structure as its subordinate is markedly visible.
• Rigid structure: While the district has been defined as a normal district in a state, the jurisdiction of village and intermediate levels has not been specifically defined in the Act. This reduces the freedom of states to choose the pattern of decentralisation which, in their opinion, is most suited to them.
• Dissolution: While the Constitution acknowledges the possibility of a dissolution, it does not deal with the running of the panchayat during the interregnum, that is between the dissolution and the constitution of the new panchayat.
• Poor Infrastructure: A large number of Gram Panchayats in the country do not even have a full-time Secretary. Around 25% of the Gram Panchayats do not have basic office buildings.

Steps Takes by Government for PRIs

1. eGramSwaraj: Launched by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR). It is a user-friendly web-based portal. It aims to bring better transparency in decentralized planning, progress reporting, and work-based accounting.
2. Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA): Launched in 2013 to strengthen the Panchayati Raj system across the country. It aims to enhance the capacities and effectiveness of Gram Sabhas, promote people’s participation in panchayats, and strengthen the institutional structure for the capacity building of panchayats.
3. National Capability Building Framework (NCBF) 2014: It has been prepared for the effective implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA) after extensive consultations with state governments and non-governmental organizations.
4. Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive: It is a central sector scheme aimed at incentivizing states for devolving funds, functions, and functionaries (3Fs) to Panchayats and incentivizing Panchayats to put in place accountability systems to make their functioning transparent and efficient.
5. Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana: The programme aims to strengthen panchayat-level governance by providing training and capacity building of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions.
6. Mission Antyodaya: It is a convergence and accountability framework aiming to bring optimum use and management of resources allocated by 27 ministries/departments of the Government of India under various programmes for the development of rural areas. It is envisaged as a state-led initiative with Gram Panchayats as focal points of convergence efforts.

Way forward/Recommendations of various committees:

1. Legislative measures [II ARC]:

• Institutions of self-government: Panchayats should be categorically declared as “institutions of self-government,” and exclusive functions should be assigned to them. For this purpose, Article 243G should be amended accordingly.

2. Elections [II ARC]:

• Delay in elections: To avoid delays in local body elections, State Election Commissions (SECs) can be empowered to undertake delimitation exercises, and the government can provide broad guidelines for delimitation either by law or by rules.
• Strengthening State Election Commissions: This can be accomplished through state legislation providing for the appointment of the SEC by the Governor on the recommendation of a collegium comprising the Chief Minister, the Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly.

3. Functions of Local Government [II ARC]:

• Clear delineation of functions: Each subject matter law should clearly outline functions, not as a one-time exercise, but continuously while working out locally relevant socio-economic programmes, restructuring organizations, and framing subject-matter laws.
• Local government memorandum: For new laws, there should be a memorandum indicating whether any functions attended by local governments are involved, and if so, whether this has been provided for in the law.
• Framework law for local bodies: The Government of India should draft a Framework Law to lay down the broad principles of devolution of powers, responsibilities, and functions to local governments, based on the principle of subsidiarity, democratic decentralization, delineation of functions, real-term devolution, convergence, and citizen centricity.

4. State Finance Commission [II ARC]:

• Qualification of members: Each state should prescribe through an Act the qualifications of persons eligible to be appointed as members of the State Finance Commission.
• Criteria for devolution and distribution of funds: State Finance Commissions (SFCs) should evolve objective and transparent norms for devolution and distribution of funds, including area-wise indices for backwardness. It should link the devolution of funds to the level/quality of civic amenities that the citizens could expect.
• Recommendations of SFCs: The Action Taken Report on the recommendations of the SFC must compulsorily be placed in the concerned State Legislature within six months of submission and followed with an annual statement regarding the implementation.
• Mechanism for review: It is necessary that a mechanism be put in place to review the implementation of all the recommendations of the SFCs. If considered necessary, devolution of funds could be made conditional to local bodies agreeing to implement the recommendations of the SFCs.

5. Capacity development [II ARC]:

• Outsourcing of functions: State Governments should encourage local bodies to outsource specific functions to public or private agencies, as may be appropriate, through enabling guidelines and support.
• Networking of institutions: ‘Networking’ of institutions concerned with various subjects such as financial management, rural development, disaster management, and general management for comprehensive and holistic training.
• Academic research: Organizations like the Indian Council of Social Science Research must be encouraged to fund theoretical, applied, and action research on various aspects of the functioning of local bodies to build long-term strategic institutional capacity for greater public good.
• Pool of experts and specialists: It could be maintained by a federation/consortium of local bodies, accessible whenever required for specific tasks.
• Secretary and Technical Assistant: Every panchayat should have a full-time secretary who will perform both general administration and development functions. It should also have a technical assistant who will carry out engineering functions.

6. Decentralized Planning [II ARC]:

• District Council: A District Council should be constituted in all districts with representation from rural and urban areas. It should be empowered to exercise the powers and functions in accordance with Articles 243G and 243W of the Constitution.
• Dedicated centre for preparing plans: A dedicated centre in every district should be set up to provide inputs to local bodies for the preparation of plans.
• Participatory local planning: Each State Government should develop the methodology of participatory local level planning and provide support to institutionalize a regime of decentralized planning.
• Time limit for preparing plans: States may design a planning calendar prescribing the time limits within which each local body has to finalize its plan and send it to the next higher level.
• Integration of District and State Plans: State Planning Boards should ensure that district plans are integrated with the State plans. It should be made mandatory for states to prepare their development plans only after consolidating the plans of local bodies.

7. Accountability and Transparency:

• Infringement of the law governing elections to local bodies: The authority to investigate should lie with the State Election Commission, which shall send its recommendations to the Governor of the State [II ARC].
• Grievance redressal: Each local body should have an in-house mechanism for the redressal of grievances with set norms for attending to and responding to citizens’ grievances. There should also be a local body ombudsman.
• Social Audit: Social audit systems should be institutionalized [II ARC].

• Assessment of performance: Evaluation tools for assessing the performance of local bodies should be devised wherein citizens should have a say in the evaluation. Tools such as ‘Citizens’ Report Cards’ may be introduced to incorporate a feedback mechanism regarding the performance of local bodies [II ARC].
• Quality monitoring: A system of quality monitoring should be put in place for all programmes being monitored by panchayats. Standards should also be developed for all assets created through rural development programmes [Sumit Bose Committee].
• Compiling Data: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj should compile essential data, including population, staff, and the availability of essential infrastructure for panchayat offices, among others [Sumit Bose Committee].
• Social accountability: Regular gram sabha meetings, as per the provisions in the State Panchayat Raj Act (such as a minimum of four meetings in a year) and on the request of voters under special circumstances. The meeting notice must reach the people at least seven days in advance [Sumit Bose Committee].
• Others: Participatory planning and budgeting; preparation of status studies for effective utilization of earmarked budget; participatory expenditure tracking; social audit of panchayats, etc. [Sumit Bose Committee].

8. Accounting and Audit [II ARC]:

• Standards and formats: It should be ensured that the audit and accounting standards and formats for Panchayats are prepared in a way that is simple and comprehensible to the elected representatives of the PRIs.
• Agency responsible for audit of accounts: The independence of the Director, Local Fund Audit (DLFA) or any other agency responsible for auditing accounts of local bodies should be institutionalized by making the office independent of the State administration.
• Separate Committee for discussing reports: Audit reports on local bodies should be placed before the State Legislature and these reports should be discussed by a separate committee of the State Legislature, similar to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

9. Information and Communication Technology (ICT): 

• To enable greater use of ICT, Panchayats should be encouraged to use only transaction-based software for carrying out their functions in delivering local services, maintaining a database related to local planning and monitoring progress, financial management including e-procurement, and estimation and management of work undertaken by them [Sumit Bose Committee].

Case Studies:

1. Brussels, Belgium: The city of Brussels is run by no less than 19 municipalities. People in the country believe that nationalism comes from local governments. Even the authority of issuing passports lies with the local authorities.
2. Argentina: Plan Nacer: City governments receive funds from the national health ministry based on population coverage. The probability of low birth weight, a key health outcome, fell by 23% in Argentina.
3. Kerala: In 1996, Kerala granted autonomy to local governments to develop and implement expenditure plans based on local needs. This was accompanied by training and the transfer of 35-40% of the state government’s development budget. Kerala’s grassroots institutions helped immensely in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Karnataka: Karnataka has created a separate bureaucratic cadre for Panchayats to move away from the practice of deputation of officials who often overpowered the elected representatives.
5. Andhra Pradesh: The Village Volunteer System under which a new department of Gram Volunteers/Ward Volunteers and Village Secretariats/Ward Secretariats was created. These public servants are being provided Rs. 5,000 as honorarium to ensure they do not get enticed, and each one is made in charge of 50 households in the village.
6. Odisha: During the pandemic, Sarpanches were given the powers of a District Collector to impose quarantine at the village level.

ROLE OF GRAM SABHA

The term Gram Sabha is defined in the Constitution of India under Article 243(b). It is the primary body of the Panchayati Raj system and by far the largest and is a permanent body.

• Members of Gram Sabha: Persons who are above 18 years of age and living in the village, whose names are included in the electoral rolls for the Panchayat at the village level.
• Powers and functions of Gram Sabha: Gram Sabha exercises such powers and performs such functions at the village level as the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide [Art 243A].
• Decisions of Gram Sabha: The decisions taken by the Gram Sabha cannot be annulled by any other body.
• Power to amend decisions: The power to annul a decision of the Gram Sabha rests with the Gram Sabha only.

Role of Gram Sabha

1. Developmental activities:
   • Implementation of plans and schemes: To help implement the development programmes and schemes of the Panchayat.
   • Identification of developmental activities: Gram Panchayat is responsible for identifying the projects in the Gram Panchayat area to be taken up under a scheme as per the recommendations of the Gram Sabha.
   • Identification of beneficiaries: To identify beneficiaries for different programmes and schemes. If Gram Sabha fails to identify such beneficiaries within a reasonable time, the Gram Panchayat shall identify them.
   • Community welfare programmes: To solicit support—in cash or kind or both—and voluntary labour from the public for community welfare programmes.
2. Social benefits:
   • Social cohesion: To promote unity and harmony among all sections of society in the village.
   • Population control measures: To support the programmes of mass education and family welfare.
   • Measures for vulnerable sections: Discussions on the distribution of old age pensions, pensions for the handicapped, etc., within Panchayat limits.
   • Awareness: They educate people about the precautions to be taken to protect the health and hygiene of people and cattle.
   • Others: The Gram Sabha also discusses problems related to the enrolment of children in schools, and the facilities and services provided by hospitals and veterinary institutions.
3. Governance:
   • Basic unit: Gram Sabha is the assembly of all voters residing in a village, forming the basic unit of Indian democracy.
   • Direct democracy: It is a forum, a constitutional entity, to ensure direct democracy through meaningful mass participation.
   • Discuss local governance: It is the fulcrum of Panchayati Raj and village development. People use it to discuss local governance and development and make need-based plans for the village.
   • Social audit: Social audits by the Gram Sabha, where non-panchayat members can be authorized to look into panchayat accounts and record their signatures after scrutiny, is another landmark inclusion.
     • Example: Indoor Gram Panchayat, Karnataka; People questioned the Secretary on the purchase of cement for the construction of a drain, revealing misappropriation of funds as some cement bags were resold.
   • Scrutiny of Panchayat activities: The Gram Sabha may seek clarification from the Mukhiya, Up-Mukhiya, and other members of the Gram Panchayat regarding any particular activity or scheme.
   • Ability to question expenditure: Panchayati Raj Institutions Accounting Software (PRIASoft) has proved to be a crucial tool for questioning expenditures in panchayats.
   • Taking appropriate action: To discuss and recommend appropriate action concerning reports from the Vigilance Committee.
   • Ensuring accountability: Gram Sabhas enable people to directly question officials and elected representatives and hold them accountable.
4. Financial activities
   • Taxation: To consider the levy of taxes, rates, rents, and fees, and the enhancement of rates thereof.

Government Schemes Promoting Gram Sabha

• Sabki Yojana, Sabka Vikas: During the campaign, structured Gram Sabha meetings will be held for preparing the Gram Panchayat Development Plan through the involvement of people at the grassroots level. Under this campaign, the gram panchayats will have to publicly display all sources of funds collected and their annual spending, along with future development initiatives.
• Gram Swaraj Abhiyan: The campaign, undertaken under the name of “Sabka Sath, Sabka Gaon, Sabka Vikas,” is to promote social harmony, spread awareness about pro-poor initiatives of the government, and reach out to poor households to enroll them and obtain their feedback on various welfare programmes.
• Gram Manchitra: It is a spatial planning application for facilitating and supporting Gram Panchayat users to perform planning at the Gram Panchayat level with the use of geo-spatial technology.
• Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP): Panchayats have been mandated for the preparation of GPDP for economic development and social justice utilizing the resources available to them. It has to be comprehensive and based on a participatory process involving the full convergence with schemes of all related central ministries/line departments enlisted in the 11th Schedule of the Constitution.
• SVAMITVA Scheme: Aims to provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India. It enables people to use their property as a financial asset for taking loans and other financial benefits from banks and also supports the preparation of better-quality GPDP by using GIS maps.
• Mission Antyodaya: A convergence and accountability framework aiming to optimize the use and management of resources allocated by 27 ministries/departments under various programmes for the development of rural areas. It is envisaged as a state-led initiative with Gram Panchayats as focal points of convergence efforts.
• MGNREGA: Under MGNREGA, the Gram Sabha determines the order of priority of works in its meetings, considering the potential of the local area, its needs, and local resources. It monitors the execution of works and serves as the primary forum for conducting social audits.

Way Forward 

[Recommendations of the Committee on Decentralisation formed by the Kerala Government in 1996]:

1. Frequency of Meetings: The Gram Sabha should meet as frequently as possible, at least once in three months.
2. Quorum: Written invitations should be sent to every household to ensure a 10% quorum.
3. Rights and Responsibilities: Every member should be given a copy of the government order detailing the rights and responsibilities of the Gram Sabha, with a covering letter by the Gram Panchayat president.
4. Rights of Gram Sabha:
   • The Gram Sabha has the right to know the action plan of schemes for the next three months, the detailed estimates of proposed works, and the detailed item-wise accounts of all expenditures incurred within the Gram Sabha area.
   • The rationale behind every decision of the panchayat concerning that area.
   • The services the officials will render and the work they are to execute in the succeeding three months.
   • Priorities for preparing the five-year and annual plans.
5. Committees: The Gram Sabha should also have committees to oversee the functioning of the Gram Panchayat, apart from having the power to approve plans, budgets, lists of beneficiaries, sites, and accounts of the Panchayat.

Best Practice

Pimpri Gavali as a model village in Maharashtra State: Achieved water security in a short span due to the effective implementation of government schemes. The Gram Sabha played a crucial role in a participatory approach to watershed development activities. It also passed resolutions for banning liquor, grazing bans, forest protection, and banning open defecation.