Varun Bhardwaj

The Village Panchayat is the main institution of running the administration of

local affairs of the village. In the past also Panchayats were attached with great

importance. The village administration was run by these Panchayats. The

Panchayats performed their functions efficiently even in small villages. With

the advent of Britishers, the Panchayats got a setback. After 1880 the British

rule in India made efforts to revive the local self-government system. It was

only in cities that local self-government paid special attention towards this end.

Eighty percent of Indians live in the village & unless the condition of villages

does not improve the country cannot make any progress. Mahatma Gandhi

stressed the need of establishment of panchayats & of giving more powers to

them.

Composition - The Gram Panchayat consists of one or a group of villages.

In Orissa the Gram Panchayat is organized by the people of 2000 to 6000. The

size of the membership of the Gram Panchayat varies from State to State. In

Orissa the membership of a Panchayat is between 11 to 25 members. The

membership of a Panchayat is fixed on the basis of the population of a village.

There is a provision for the reservation of seats for scheduled Casts in the

Panchayat. A specified number of seats are reserve for women in all the states.

Every adult who is a resident of the village has got the right to vote in the

Panchayat election. Any voter who is 25 years of age can contest the election &

become a member of the village Panchayat. The Gram Panchayat is divided

into various wards and one representative is directly elected by the people on

the basis of adult franchise.

Tenure - The tenure of the Panchayat in all the States is not uniform.

Usually the members of a Panchayat are elected for a five-year term.

Chairman - There is head of the Panchayat who is called the Sarpanch.

Other members of the Panchayat are called the Panchs. In some states Sarpanch

is elected by the Panchs. In Orissa Sarpanch is elected directly by the voters.

All the decision of the Panchayat is taken by an ordinary majority. The

Sarpanch has got the right to exercise a vote. Besides the Sarpanch there is also

one Naib-Sarpanch who is elected by & from the members of the Panchayat.

The Sarpanch or the Naib Sarpanch may be impeached by the vote of no-

confidence motion and also may be suspended for corruption or miss-

management. Each Gram Panchayat has a Secretary & a Gram Sevak & V.L.W.

Meetings - The Panchayat must hold its meeting once in a month & the

Sarpanch presides over the meeting of the Panchayat.

Sources of Income

It gets 10% of the total revenue collected from the village.

It imposes House tax.

It sets profit from the sale of fertilizers.

It imposes tax on animals, profession etc.

Drainage fee.

The Panchayats issue various types of license & get a fee for the same.

It takes money by selling the slain of dead animals.

POWERS & FUNCTIONS

Judicial Power - It decides minor & criminal cases within its areas. Now

the villagers need not go to the Tahasil or the District headquarters to set their

disputes decided. In criminal sphere the Panchayat can hear cases involving

mischief, assault, theft of property etc. on payment of prescribed fee. These fees

are of a nominal nature. They can hear civil cases of the value of 200/-. They₹

can impose a fine up to 200/-. One thing is to be noted that the lawyers₹

cannot appear before the Panchayats. Both the parties are to appear before the

Panchayat to plead their case. In criminal cases the Panchayat can only impose

a fine and it cannot sentence anybody to imprisonment. It can impose a fine up

to 25 openly those who defy its orders. Normally the decision of the₹

Panchayat is final but an appeal can be made to the Court of District Magistrate

with its prior sanction.

Administrative Functions

It maintains peace & order in the village.

It helps the police in the prevention of crimes and in the arrest of

criminal.

It can oppose the sale of wine in its jurisdiction by passing a resolution of

2/3rd majority.

It keeps a watch on the work of the Government official in the village.

The Panchayat can lodge a complaint to the District Collector against the

Patwari, Lambardar & Chowkidar if they do not perform their duties

properly.

Functions for Public Welfare

It makes sanitary arrangement in the village.

It makes arrangements for pure drinking water and of pouring medicine

in the wells, tanks etc.

It makes arrangements for street & road lights.

It opens libraries & reading rooms in the village.

It gets trees planted & looks after them.

It tries for the promotion of animal husbandry.

It tries for the development of cottage industry so that unemployed

villages get employment.

It helps people economically in case of floods, famine & drought.

It makes arrangements for fairs, exhibition, wrestling matches & kabaddi

matches for providing recreation to the people.

It constructs & maintains stress, road & bridges in the village.

DUTIES

The concept of obligatory functions has been introduced through the Karnataka

Panchayat Raj (Third Amendment) Act, 1997 which inserted a new sub-section

(i-A) of Section 58. These functions are obligatory in the sense that Gram

Panchayat has to compulsorily make reasonable provisions to the extent, the

fund at its disposal, provides for carrying out these activities. The obligatory

functions may be broadly classified into the three categories, namely:

i. Statutory Duties

The Act has conferred statuary powers on the Gram Panchayat to

levy taxes, rates and fees.

ii. Civic Amenities

Construction of Latrines, maintenance of roads and drains,

providing street lights, maintenance of water supply, regulation of

dumping manure and garbage are civic functions of the Gram

Panchayat.

iii. Promotional Activities

Assisting the departments and other agencies in the educational

and health programmes, promoting activities like supporting

primary education, adult education, mass immunisation are the

promotional activities. These activities will reduce the problem of

literacy, high rate of mortality, infectious diseases and other killer

diseases.

The Gram Panchayat has to set apart a portion of its funds under ‘untied’

grants and its own resources to discharge these functions. The power of

administrative sanction in respect of public work, are as follows:

(i) Upto 2900₹ The Adhyaksha

(ii) Upto 10000₹ The Gram Panchayat

(iii) Upto 25000₹ The Executive Officer

(iv) Above 25000₹ The Chief Executive Officer

CONSTITUTION OF GRAM

PANCHAYAT

Of the three institutions established under Act, the Gram Panchayat constitutes

the most effective tier of PRI.

Ban on Political Parties

The elections of Gram Panchayat members are held on a non-party basis,

such that is one member elected for every 400 rural population. Representation

to various categories or rural population. Representation to various categories

or sections of society, particularly among the weaker sections, i.e. SC, ST, OBC

and women has been ensured. This indeed is the greatest achievement of the

new Act.

Representation of Women in Gram Panchayats

Although the reservation for women was 30%, yet 43% of the total

elected GP members were women. Also, 119 Adhyakshas and 123

Upadhyakshas were women. Maximum Number of women was from the

progressive Udupi taluka. It is also noteworthy that there are 399 SC women

representatives. The reasons for such high representation of SCs among women

are:

(i) Political parties could not find women of their castes to contest the

elections,

(ii) Women of SC background were in some places more suitable to

occupy political positions,

(iii) SC women were more enthusiastic or were under greater pressure

from their family males to contest, than were upper caste women,

and

(iv) While upper caste women may not need to contest elections from a

social mobility point of view, SC women may consider being

elected to political positions as a means of upward social mobility,

as many SC men have done in the past.

Participation

Election of so many women in the PRIs has caused some

discomfort to both the elected men and the elected women. The rural

society does not provide many opportunities or situations for men and

women, not of the same families, to work together in a common

enterprise. For the women members, meeting their constituents more

often was due to difficulty in touring the constituencies. This could be

attributed to their economic dependence on the men of their families,

who may or may not give them transport allowances, and also their

inability to travel alone in the area.

Education

The educational levels of women GP members were not only

lower than that of male members, but even independently they could be

considered very low. For instance, 16% of the samples were illiterate,

18% were neo literates, 49% had middle school and primary school

education and only 25% of them had gone to high school and college.

Among SCs and STs, 53.8% women were illiterate. Local leaders may

also have deliberately selected uneducated and illiterate women

candidates, particularly at the GP level so that they could more easily

take over their responsibilities as representatives and side-line them in

due course.

Occupation

Women members are particularly handicapped by their social

background. Their occupations were a further hindrance to a more

effective participation in the PRIs. There were three occupations that the

majority of women had listed, i.e. housework, agriculture and social

work. Their entry into politics has brought some changes in this

traditional setup, to the extent that they now have less time to accomplish

their housework, which is considered as “women’s work”. Some women

found the conflicting demands in these roles a strain on their physical

resources as well as their sense of well-being. Few women GP members

earned a living by rolling beedis in their own homes and hence found

attending GP work as a financial loss.