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Panchayati Raj institutions are more than mere agencies or limbs of the State Government; their purpose is not achieved with carrying out the development programmes and administrative tasks entrusted to them. They are organs of self-government at their respective levels. Mobilising popular enthusiasm and harnessing local manpower and other resources for development arc thus their very raison d'etre, The func­tioning of Panchayati Raj has to he judged by the progress made towards achieving these vital objectives.

To bring about the direct and willing participation of the villagers in development, the planning process has to start from the village. Panchayati Raj institutions were expected to give the lead in this matter, but this they have failed to do so far. The so-called village production plans that we have now are nothing but paper plans prepared by the Village Level Workers in consultation with a few village ciders and the sarpanch of the panchayat. No serious attempt has been made to prepare genuine village plans in­corporating targets for each crop and for every family in the village.

Panchayat samitis and village panchayats are prompt to take up and execute programmes for which the Government provides loans, grants or subsidies so as to avail themselves of this assistance. But program­mes which have to be carried out with local resources and initiative lag behind.

P A N C H A Y A T I Raj was inaugurat­ed in Rajasthan on October 27,

1959. Elections to panchayat. sami­t is and zila parishads were held the same month on the basis of the then exis t ing village panchayats. In I960 the vi l lage panchayats were recon­s t i tu ted according to the onc-village-one-panchayat principle. The State was divided into 7,394 panchayat cycles, each w i t h a population of 1,500 to 2,000- Fresh elections to these reconstituted panchayats were held In December 1960 and elec­

tions to panchayat samitis and zi la parishads were completed by M a r c h 1961. I t was w i t h o u t doubt a very bold step to introduce democratic decentrarsation throughout the State at one stroke. It was a leap in the dark. But , after four years of work ­ing, it can be confidently said tha t Panchayat i Raj has come to stay.

Though decentralisation has not yet succeeded in harnessing popular enthusiasm for development work , the execution and admmist ra t ion of development schemes entrusted to Panchayat i R a j have been, by and large, satisfactory. The success of Panchayat i Ra j has to be judged by

the extent to wh ich the objectives set for it have been achieved. These objectives have been set out in the T h i r d Plan as fol lows:

( i ) Increasing agr icu l tu ra l pro­duct ion;

( i i ) Development of ru ra l indus­t r y ;

( i i i ) Foster ing co-operative in-s t i tu t ions;

( iv) F u l l u t i l i sa t ion of local man­power and other resources and the resources, physical and financial, available to Pancha­y a t i Raj ins t i tu t ions :

(v) Assist ing the economically weaker sections of the village communi ty ;

(v i ) Progressive dispersal of au­t h o r i t y and in i t ia t ive , w i t h special emphasis on the role of vo lun ta ry organisations; and,

(v i i ) Foster ing cohesion and en-couraging the sp i r i t of self-help w i t h i n the community.

Reluctance to Tax One of the p r i m a r y objectives of

Panchayati Raj is to encourage people's par t ic ipa t ion in develop­mental activit ies. The efforts made by panchayat samitis to raise local resources is a measure of people's par t ic ipat ion. Table 1 indicates the tax effort made by panchayat samitis in the last three years, Of the 232

panchayat samitis in the State, only 175 have so far imposed any taxes.

Cess on land revenue appears to be the most -popular levy nearly 67 per cent of the panchayat samitis have imposed i t . I t should be pointed out, though, tha t of the 26 dis t r ic ts in the State, in about ten of the b ig­ger ones, which cover more than hal f the State, there used to be dis­t r i c t boards before the introduc­

t ion of Panchayati Raj . The d is t r ic t boards used to levy a cess on land revenue at the rate of 6 nP per rupee. When Panchayati Raj was in ­troduced, the d is t r ic t boards were abolished, but Section 70 (4) of the Rajasthan Panchayat Samitis and

Zi la Parishads Ac t , 1959 provided that "any taxes that were being le­vied and collected by an abolished Dis t r i c t Board immediately before the date of i ts aboli t ion shall, if such taxes are permissible under Section 33 of this Ac t , continue to be levi­ed and collected after the consti­

tu t ion of a Panchayat Samiti for any area of the said Distr ict Board,

by such Panchayat Samiti unless it decides otherwise by re so lu t ion" So the cess on land revenue continued to be levied at the reduced rate of 5 nP per rupee by the successor panchayat samitis .

The cess on land revenue, there­fore, cannot be treated as a fresh tax effort by the panchayat samitis, except in those areas where there were no d i s t r i c t boards previously. The other taxes, namely, on profes­sion and fairs, education, etc, can be taken as a measure of the effort made by the panchayat samitis to mobilise local resources. Table 1 also compares the estimated annual i n ­come f rom taxes of the panchayat samits w i t h the actual realisation. It is seen tha t even in 1962-63 real­isations including collection of ar­rears were only 50 per cent of esti­mated annual income. Thus pancha-

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Panchayati Raj in Action A Study of Rajasthan

P K Chaudhuri

ANNUAL NUMBER FEBRUARY 1964 THE ECONOMIC W E E K L Y

yat samitis are not on ly reluctant to impose taxes, when taxes are im­posed ihere is a tendency to put off collection.

L i n k i n g Taxes to Benefit** To encourage greater involvement

of the population in the process of development it is necessary to over­

come people's resistance to pay­ment of taxes. The hope tha t the ushering in of Panchayati Raj w i l l reduce this resistance has been be­lied by experience. The Study Team on Panchayat Finances appointed by the Government of Ind i a has sug­gested the imposi t ion of compulsory taxes to augment the resources of panchayat samitis. B u t so long as vi l lagers resist payment of taxes, compulsory taxes are no solution of the problem.

Nobody has yet made a proper study of w h y the vi l lagers are averse to pay ing taxes. One of the ma in reasons, it is possible, is that they

do not see any direct l i n k between the taxes they pay and the benefits they get. If the resources could be collected in such a manner tha t the direct relationship between the bene­fits received and the taxes paid be­comes evident to the villagers, thei r resistance to taxes w i l l be reduced. One way of doing th is is tha t the panchayat samitis should not impose any permanent taxes of a general or all-purpose nature. Instead, every year they should impose levies for specific projects, say, a school bu i ld ­ing , a vil lage road, an i r r i ga t i on dam, etc, and the funds so rais­ed should be earmarked for and spent on these projects. Permanent taxes of a general nature may be raised by a body fur ther removed f rom the people than the panchayat samitis.

Land revenue is one of the most impor tan t direct taxes paid by the agr icul tur is t . B u t he has not the faintest idea as to how land revenue is be'ng spent—whether he gets back even a par t through the various schemes and projects executed in the vil lage, and, i f so, how much .

Table 2 gives the figures of the State's land revenue collection dur­i n g the last three years and the pan­chayat samitis ' budget and expendi­ture . I t wil l be evident tha t the bud­geted annual income and expediture of the panchayat samitis corres­pond very nearly to the land reve­nue collected. I f a l l the land revenue

collected f r o m a panchayat circle is transferred to the vil lage panchayat and a l l i ts development programmes are f inanced w i t h i t , the vi l lager w i l l readily perceive the relationship be­tween the land revenue paid by h i m and the benefit tha t he receives. Be­sides, a surcharge on land revenue is long overdue and vil lagers w i l l accept i t more readily i f the collec­tions are spent on development schemes in the vil lage.

Planning f rom Below

Whi le prepar ing the State's T h i r d Five Year Plan at tempts were made to involve the panchayat samitis in the process. Before the State plans were finalised, proposals for develop­ment projects were collected f rom vil lage panchayats at the sami t i headquarters. B u t this was done w i t h o u t any indicat ion of pr ior i t ies . The State Government informed the panchayat samitis of the tentat ive schemewise allocation of funds tha t w i l l be made available to them dur­ing the Plan period. The proposals received f rom the vil lage pancha­yats were then sifted, modified and shaped into the block p lan and f o r

warded to the State Government through the zila par i shad. A n d at the State headquarters these pro­posals went th rough fur ther modi­fications. Thus the process did not succeed to any great extent in i n ­corpora t ing the fel t needs of the people in the Plan.

Fai lure of Extension Services Panchayat samitis and vi l lage pan­

chayats are prompt to take up and execute programmes for w h i c h funds are provided by the Government in the f o r m of loans, subsidies, grants,

etc, so as to ut i l ise the assistance

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To achieve the direct and w i l l i n g par t ic ipa t ion of the vil lagers in p lan implementat ion, the p lanning p ro­cess should s ta r t f rom the vi l lage. Whi le d r awing up the plan each vil lage should be given an indicat ion, as definitely as possible, of the re­sources tha t w i l l be made available to i t du r ing the plan period and the local communi ty on i t s p a r t should make a f i rm commitment to imple­ment the projects formulated on the basis of their fe l t needs- The State Government's Evalua t ion Organisa­t ion carr ied out a random survey to assess public opinion on the formula­

t ion of development plans. I t reveal­ed tha t an overwhelming m a j o r i t y of the people wan t the plan to be pre­pared at the local level. The results of the survey are given below:

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provided. B u t programmes w h i c h are to be carr ied out w i t h local resour­ces and in i t i a t ive lag behind. Pro­grammes l ike product ion of pure seed by registered seed growers, de­velopment and proper use of local manur ia l resources, use of improved implements, adoption of improved practices, etc, have not evoked suf­ficient response in the villages. This can be a t t r ibu ted to a very large extent to the fa i lure of the exten­sion services. Extension services were started in the blocks nearly a decade ago, bu t even now there is hardly any communication between the extension personnel and the vil lager. Impressive s tat is t ical figures are published f rom t ime to t ime by the Government regarding increased i r r i ga t ion potential , d i s t r i ­but ion of fertil isers, use of improved implements, etc, but these achieve­ments are seldom reflected in higher p roduc t iv i ty on the fields.

The extension services should cater to the individual needs of the far­mer, advise h i m on his problems and suggest solutions for his day-to­day difficulties. Today the approach of the extension services to r u r a l problems is abstract and general* The extension personnel seldom go in to the farmer 's individual and specific problems. Unless this is done, l i t t l e communication can be expect­ed to be established between the farmer and the extension personnel. A n d w i t h o u t such communication be­ing established our extension me­thods w i l l never be able to make any impact on the r u r a l scene.

Abstract, General Approach Under present rules, the panchayat

sami t i vehicle can be used only when at least three extension offi­cers go on tour together. So for tour­i n g the sami t i area the extension officers generally fo rm groups of 3 to 6 persons, take the samit i vehicle and go to the villages- They usually stop in a vi l lage for a short while , collect a few persons available on the spot or ask the sarpanch or a panch who is readily available to collect some people. Then they deliver harangues on thei r respective subjects in abstract and general terms. This method of extension has failed to make any impression on the agr icu l tur i s t .

At times a t tempts are made to explain away this fa i lure by p u t t i n g

the blame on the conservatism of the Ind ian farmer and his reluctance to adopt modern practices. I t i s diff i­cul t to subscribe to this view- The Indian farmer is not a fool. He is reputed for his s t rong commonsense. Take, for instance, the case of bu l ­lock carts. In r u r a l India , the bul­lock car t is the only means of trans­por t on wh ich the farmer depends for mov ing his crop, manure and fodder and for visi ts to fairs and markets as wel l as for m a k i n g social calls. The bullock carts used to have wooden or i r on tyres, bu t in the last four or five years almost 90 per cent of the carts—bullock, camel or hu­man drawn—in the State have been f i t ted w i t h pneumatic rubber tyres. No extension officer or Government agency told farmers to adopt this modification in their age-old means of t ransportat ion. B u t they realised the value of this innovation and avidly seized upon i t w i thou t any external agency u rg ing them to do so.

Convincing the Farmer W h a t this example underscores is

that a farmer has to be first con­vinced by pract ical demonstration of the value of any new method or practice before he can be expected to adopt i t The ma jo r i ty of our agr icul tur is ts belong to an income group jus t on or below subsistence level and it is wishful to expect them to indulge in the l u x u r y of experi­ment ing w i t h new ideas on the s t rength of a few harangues f rom extension officers, whom they re­gard as youngmen, fu l l of book-learning but ignorant of actual ag­r i cu l t u r a l practices. I t has been ob­served tha t whenever an enterpris­i ng agr icu l tur i s t adopts a new ag­r i c u l t u r a l practice and gets better yields f rom his field as a result, his neighbours adopt i t w i thou t w a i t ­i n g for anybody to ask them to do so. It has been noted tha t the in t ro ­duction of a new crop pat tern in any loca l i ty by an agr icul tur is t has a quicker and greater impact in the neighbourhood than the in t roduct ion of an improved practice of cul t iva­t ion for the exis t ing crop pat tern in force in the area.

Demonsrations g iven in Stare own . ed fa rms do not convince the farmer. The reason for this is obvi­ous. The Government-managed farms are usually spoon-fed. Money and

materials are spent on t hem freely. Rarely are any of these farms eco­nomically even self-supporting, not to t a l k of profitable. Na tu ra l ly , therefore, demonstrations given in the State farms do not car ry con­vic t ion w i t h the agr icul tur is t . Gaps In Adminis t ra t ive Procedure

The extension personnel are gene­ra l ly ill-equipped for the job they are entrusted w i th . Lack of pract i ­cal field experience and adequate knowledge of local problems are their pr incipal handicaps. Besides, the extension staff function under a dual control . The extension officers for agricul ture, animal husbandry, co-operation, etc, are on deputation w i t h the panchayat samit i . The Vikas A d h i k a r i (Block Development Officer) has administrat ive control over them. Simultaneously they are under the technical control of the officers of their respective parent departments who are supposed to supervise and guide them in their technical work- Moreover. even though they are under the adminis­t ra t ive cont ro l of the Vikas Adh i ­ka r i , he cannot take any disciplinary action against them. Since they are on deputation w i t h the panchayat samit i . a l l discipl inary action against them is in i t ia ted and taken by offi­cers belonging to the parent depart­ment. This type of dual control en­courages indiscipline among the ex­tension staff and also contributes to their ineffective functioning.

Another impor tan t cause of indis­cipline is the lack of clear demar­cation of the spheres of action of the Pradhan (president of the pan­chayat samit i ) and the Vikas Adh i ­ka r i . At times conflicting instruc­tions are issued to the extension staff by the Pradhan and the Vikas A d h i k a r i . In case of f r ic t ion be­tween the two, the extension per­sonnel are found to al ign them­selves, some w i t h the Pradhan and others w i t h the Vikas Adh ika r i . This creates an impossible si tuation for the adminis t ra t ion of the panchayat samit i .

D i s t r i c t level extension officers are superimposed on the departmental cadre and function under the guid­ance and control of their depart­mental officers either at the regional level or at the headquarters. The dis t r ic t level officers, it has been noticed, evince less interest in their

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w o r k In the field since the Introduc­t ion of Panchayat i Raj t han they used to do before. They appear to feel t ha t w i t h the in t roduc t ion of Panchayat i Raj the onus of execution of projects has passed on to the po­pular representatives and Panchayat i Raj ins t i tu t ions . The Government is conscious of this and various steps have been taken and instruct ions issued f r o m t ime to t ime to ensure tha t the d i s t r i c t officers take inter­est in the i r work , but t i l l now these efforts have not produced re­sults. One suggestion tha t has been made is t ha t the services of these officers m a y be transferred to the zi la parishad and these officers placed under the adminis t ra t ive con­t r o l of the zi la parishad.

Village Production Plans

In the words of the Grow More Food Commit tee "no plan can have any chance of success unless the

mil l ions of small farmers in the count ry accept i t s objectives, share in i t s making , regard i t as the i r own and are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary fo r implement­i n g i t . " This can happen only when the extension agencies can assist every fa rmer w i t h his production programme, otherwise, to quote Shri V T Krishnamachar i , "these agencies w i l l cease to command confidence."

The T h i r d Plan out lay on agr icu l ­ture is nearly double tha t provided in the Second Plan. D u r i n g the F i r s t Plan ag r i cu l tu ra l production increas­ed by 17 per cent and dur ing the Second Plan by 16 per cent. I t is proposed to increase agr icu l tu ra l product ion d u r i n g the T h i r d Plan by about 30 per cent and the yield per acre of foodgrains by about 16 per cent. Th i s is a tremendous task.

The only w a y these ambit ious tar­gets can be achieved is by involv ing a l l the cul t ivators , small and big, in the country. This can be done only by f o r m u l a t i n g effective vi l lage pro­duction plans. Panchayat i Raj ins t i ­tu t ions were expected to give the lead in th is ma t t e r but this they have failed to do so far. The so-call­ed vi l lage product ion plans tha t we have today are no th ing but paper plans casually prepared by the V i l ­lage Level Worke r s in consultat ion w i t h a couple of vi l lage elders and the sarpanch of the vil lage pancha-yat . No serious a t t empt has yet been

made to prepare an authentic v i l ­lage product ion plan incorporat ing production targets for each crop and for every f ami ly in the vil lage

The vil lage production plans, ac­cording to the T h i r d Five Year Plan, should include two main groups of programmes:

(a) Programmes such as supply of credit, ferti l isers and improved seeds, p lant protection, minor i r r i ­gation, etc, for wh ich a measure of assistance has to come from outside the v i l lage; and

(b) Programmes such as d igging f ie ld channels for u t i l i s ing i r r i ga t i on f rom large projects, maintenance of bunds and field channels, d igging and maintenance of vi l lage tanks, develop­ment and u t i l i sa t ion of local manu-r i a l resources, etc, which call for ef­fo r t on the part, of the vil lage com­m u n i t y or the beneficiaries.

In practice, the vil lage production plans tha t are prepared at present do not take into consideration the pro­ductive capacities of the individual families in the vi l lage but are based purely on group fa) type programmes and are formulated on the basis of estimates or indications of the quan­tum of outside assistance expected to be made available dur ing the agr i ­cul tura l season. No at tempts have so far been made to incorporate in the village production plan group (b) type programmes which call for ef­for t on the part of the village com­m u n i t y or the beneficiaries. So the P lanning Commission's directive "to give effect, in the field of extension, to the idea of w o r k i n g out vi l lage

product ion plans so as to d raw al l the cul t ivators into the common ef­fort , and at the same t ime, to make available to individual farmers in an efficient and organised manner the credit supplies, and other assistance needed" s t i l l remains on paper- As long as vil lage production plans are not prepared on the basis of f ami ly units and in consultation w i t h them, they w i l l f a i l to involve the farmers.

No Place for Zila Parishads In i ts present fo rm the zila pa r i ­

shad as an ins t i tu t ion appears to have become redundant. In spite of its status, it has played no effective role. One of the most impor tan t func­tions of the z i la parishads, as provided

in the Rajasthan Panchayat Samitis and Z i l a Parishads A c t 1959, is to "supervise generally the act ivi t ies

of the panchayat samitis in the dis­t r i c t and to advise the State Govern­ment on a l l matters concerning the

panchayats and panchayat samitis". The zila parishad's instructions to the panchayat samitis are a l l of an ad­

visory nature having no sanction be­hind them- If the advice is not pala­table, the samitis usually ignore i t .

Zila parishads are also given power to scrutinise the budgets of the pan­chayat samitis under Section 37 (4) of the A c t which reads as follows:

"The budget estimates as f inal ly passed by the panchayat samit i shall be submitted by the Vikas Adh ika r i , on or before such date as may be prescribed, to the Dist­inct Development Officer (i e, the Collector), who shall, after scru­t iny , place the same w i t h his com­ments before the zila parishad wi th ­in the prescribed time. If the zi la parishad is satisfied tha t adequate provision has not been made in the budget estimates to give effect to the provisions of this Act , it shall have the power to suggest such modifications as may be necessary and re turn it to the panchayat samit i w i t h i ts observations regar­ding the modifications to be made therein. The panchayat samit i shall cons'dei- such observations and pass the budget w i t h such modifi­cation as it deems f i t " .

Thup the A c t does not make it mandatory on the panchayat samit i to accept the modifications suggest­ed by the zila parishad. And so the zila parishads are reluctant to issue any instructions which it knows may not be acceptable to the panchayat samitis. As for the zila parishads' function of advising the State Gov­ernment on matters concerning pan­chayats and panchayat samitis, the posit ion is no better- The advice is hardly ever acted upon by the Gov­ernment.

Evils of Indirect Election The Pradhan of a panchayat samit i

is elected by the sarpanches of village panchayats in the jur isdic t ion of the samit i and the co-opted members of the samit i . In Rajasthan there are 7,394 village panchayats and 2."52 pan­chayat. samitis. In 1960-61, 25 per cent of the elections of panches and sarpanches were unanimous; of sar­panches, 38.8 percent were elected unanimously. But unanimous elections of panchayat samiti pradhans were

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rare . In most cases, there were keen contests fo r the office of pradhans. The Congress contested the elections as a pa r ty . D u r i n g these contests cases of forcible confinement and k i d ­napping of sarpanches occurred on an a l a rming scale. The kidnapped persons were released at the place of the election j u s t in t ime to cast the i r votes. In a few cases the sarpanches were sent on p i lgr image to Hardwar , etc, or fo r sight-seeing to Kashmi r at the expense of the prospective candi­dates for the office of pradhan so as to prevent them f r o m coming under the influence of r i v a l candidates-

These elections witnessed the worst features of indirect elections when the electoral college is small and the office is one of power and patronage. The assumption tha t direct election is more expensive than indirect elec­t ion was disproved. None of the con­testants fo r the office of pradhan spent less than wha t an average As­sembly candidate spends ( actual ex­penditure, not tha t submit ted to the r e tu rn ing officer). Another unhappy feature of indirect elections also manifested i tself — pol i t ica l and other pressures as we l l as money played a deciding role in them.

The elections have lef t such a b i t ­ter t r a i l tha t every one in the state, irrespective of pa r ty affiliation, now wishes a change in the mode of elec­t ion of the pradhan. The consensus of opinion is tha t the pradhan should be chosen either by direct election or the exis t ing electoral college should be enlarged by including in i t , besides the sarpanches, the panches in the panchayat s ami t i area.

Co-opted Members to Blame Section 8 (2) of the Panchayats

A c t provides for co-opting cer ta in categories of persons as members of the panchayat samitis to give ade­quate representation to weaker sec­tions l ike women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, etc. I t also pro­vides fo r co-option of " two persons whose experience in adminis t ra t ion,

public l i fe or r u r a l development would be of benefit to the panchayat sami t i " . The A c t allows re laxat ion in the residential qualification for such persons who "need not reside in the block but they must be resid­i n g in the d i s t r i c t i n w h i c h the block is si tuated". The result is t ha t a large m a j o r i t y of the persons co-opted are t o w n dwellers.

Of the 232 panchayat samitis In the State no less than 60 have co-opt­ed members as their pradhans. Of the co-opted persons who are prad­hans, 80.5 per cent have been co-opted because of their experience in adminis t ra t ion. S imi la r ly 33.3 of the chairmen of the standing committees on production are co-opted members. I t is in terest ing to note tha t a num­ber of co-opted members were defeat­ed in the election of sarpanches. Much of the doubtful tactics used in the election of pradhans are a t t r ibu ted to this par t icu la r type of co-opted members.

An enquiry by the State Govern­ment's evaluation organisation in to the nature of par t ic ipat ion of co-opt­ed members in samit i meetings is not very encouraging. Only about 10.2 per cent of the co-opted mem­bers part icipated actively in discus­sions at samit i meetings, whi le near­ly 70 per cent of them had never part icipated at al l in any discussion. A m o n g co-opted members, of course, the most active are those who have been co-opted for the i r so-called ex­perience in adminis t ra t ion or social work . Co-opted members represent­i n g women, scheduled castes and tribes are the least active.

Politics of Standing Committees Under Section 20(1) of the A c t

every panchayat samit i is required to constitute standing committees for each of the fo l lowing group of subjects;

Product ion programmes, including agr icul ture and other allied subjects;

Social services, including educa­t ion, sanitation, communication and allied subjects; and

Finance, taxat ion and adminis t ra t ion.

Panchayat samitis usually meet once every quarter. It is the stan­ding committees which function throughout the year. As provided in the Ac t , the samit i delegates i ts powers and functions to the standing committee by a resolution and the decisions of the standing committee have the same legal force as those of the sami t i unless it is revoked by the sami t i w i t h i n a month of the date on which i t is taken.

The standing committee members are elected by simple m a j o r i t y and so normal ly the m i n o r i t y group in the sami t i goes unrepresented on

these committees which are mono­polised by the ma jo r i ty group con­sist ing of the supporters of the prad­han. The decisions taken by the standing committees are not always above reproach; very often they are influenced by factional and group considerations.

Members of panchayat samitis are generally more interested in trans­fers, postings and appointments of samit i staff than in developmental activit ies. This is what the State Evaluat ion Organisation has to say about the durat ion of meetings of the various standing committees: "On an average the meetings of the stand­i n g committees on Admin is t ra t ion and Finance were the longest while those of the standing committees on Production were the shortest. I t is interest ing to note that a f a i r l y large number of meetings of the standing committees lasted for only 15 minutes. H a r d l y any business could have been transacted in such meet­ings and they were jus t called to complete the fo rma l i t y of doing so". Some statistics on the durat ion of the meetings of s tanding committees is given below:

Role of Officials Af te r the introduction of Pancha-

y a t i Raj , almost all appointments to the posts of Vikas Adhikar i s have been made f rom the cadre of the State Admin is t ra t ive Services. The Vikas A d h i k a r i is the chief executive officer of the panchayat samit i . But in practice he has no control over the sami t i staff. Under Section 89 (2) of the A c t he can punish only class IV staff; against the rest of the staff he can only record censures. But an appeal against such censure can be made to the standing committee of the samit i . Punishment of a l l other

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sami t i staff is the sphere of the stand­ing committee of the samit i .

This has created an anomalous position. The Vikas A d h i k a r i is res­ponsible for ensuring tha t "plans and programmes approved by the ap­propriate au thor i ty are executed effi­cient ly" and for exercising "super­vision and control over the acts or all officers and servants of the pan-chayat samit i and the staff w o r k i n g in ins t i tu t ions and schemes transfer­red by the State Government to the panchayat samit i in mat ters of exe­cutive adminis t ra t ion" . Yet he has been given no discipl inary control over the staff. As a result, the pan­chayat sami t i gets paralysed when relations between the pradhan and the vikas adhikar i are not cordial and when the pradhan is the chairman of the standing committee on admini­strat ion w h i c h exercise discipl inary control over the samit i staff.

There is evidence of g rowing det­er iorat ion in the relations between officials and non-officials in the pan-chayat samitis. Instances of f r ic t ion between the pradhan and the vikas adhikar i are on the increase. Whenever the pradhan happens to be educated or assertive, conflicts w i t h the vikas adhikar i are frequent. A clear de­marca t ion of the spheres of action and powers and functions of the two is u rgent ly called for.

A panchayat samit i has a repre­sentative of the co-operative societies in the area as one of i t s co-opted members and the co-operative exten­sion officer is placed under the admi­nis t ra t ive control of the vikas adhi­k a r i . In spite of this there is lack of coordination between the two. At the vi l lage panchayat level the si tuation is much worse. At times cooperatives and panchayats appear to w o r k at cross purposes. Cooperative societies very often f ind place for persons los­i n g panchayat elections. These per­sons then t r y to use the cooperative movement to regain pol i t ical power. This is a reason why the cooperative movement is dominated by pol i t i ­

cians.

Panchayats Lose Importance The vil lage panchayat is the corner­

stone of Panchayati Raj . Bu t in fact vil lage panchayats in the State have grown weaker than before the inau­gurat ion of Panchayat i R a j . Some of the factors responsible for this are shortage of finance, increase in fac­

t ionalism, and emergence of the sar-panch as a powerful personality on account of his membership of the panchayat sami t i .

W i t h the in t roduct ion of Pancha­y a t i Raj village panchayats were re­constituted on the one-village-one-pan-chayat basis. Two consequences f o l ­lowed f rom this- F i r s t , w i t h the re­duction in size, the income of the village panchayats suffered propor­tionate decrease, whi le their overhead expenditure remained the same. Se­cond, on account of the compact and smaller size of the panchayats cont­est for the offices became wider, keen­er and closer and gave rise to fac­t ional ism on a wide scale. The conse­quence of a l l this has been tha t the vil lage panchayat as an ins t i tu t ion actual ly suffered a setback after the in t roduct ion of the Panchayati Raj .

The Rajasthan Panchayat (Amend­ment.) A c t 1960 made provision for g ram sabhas. I t i s provided tha t "Every panchayat shall convene in such manner and at such times and intervals as may be prescribed, a meet ing of all adul t residents of the panchayat circle- At such meetings the programme and works under­taken by the panchayat and their progress shall be explained and the views of the residents thereon shall be reported to the panchayat at i ts next meeting".

Though it has been decided to hold the meetings every six months, the Ins t i tu t ion of the gram sabha has vet to f ind i ts place in the Panchayati Raj system. The part icipants in these meetings are mos t ly passive, except when mat ters per ta in ing to the reve­nue or forest departments come un­der discussion. In such discussion they air thei r grievances w i t h o u t any inhibi t ion .

Weaker Sections Have Not Benefitted

Panchayat i Raj has not brought relief to the weaker section of the community . There has been no per­ceptible increase in the f low of bene­fits of development to the economi­cally and socially weaker sections of the vil lage communi ty . According to the 1961 Census, the State has a populat ion of 21 mill ions, of w h i c h scheduled castes consti tute about 3 m i l l i o n and scheduled tribes about 2 . 1 mil l ions. Yet there is not a single scheduled caste pradhan in the whole State. Out of a to ta l of 7,394 sarpan-ches, the number of scheduled caste

sarpanches could be counted on one's f i nge r s . A n d only i n predominant ly t r i b a l areas do we find a few sar­

panches and pradhans belonging to the scheduled tribes. Rura l leadership is s t i l l in the hands of the re la t ively well-to-do classes in the vi l lage which control a l l vantage positions in Pan­chayati Raj .

Another reason w h y the benefits of development in the r u r a l areas have not percolated th rough to the weaker sections is tha t to take advan­tage of programmes l ike agr icu l tura l loans, subsidies, etc, one must possess land and immovable proper ty to offer as sureties. If the weaker sections of the ru r a l communi ty are to take ad­vantage of these development pro­grammes, present rules in th is res­pect w i l l have to be changed.

Panchayat Training Centres

S O M E 66 Panchayati Raj T r a i n i n g Centres are now func t ion ing in

the country, p rov id ing t r a i n i n g facil i t ies to Sarpanches, Up-Sarpan-ches and Panches. Of this, 25 arc located in U t t a r Pradesh, 10 each in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, 3 in A n d h r a Pradesh. 2 in Assam and one centre each in Kera la , H imacha l Pradesh, M a n i p u r and T r i p u r a . Three t r a in ing centres are bei'ng set up in Gujarat .

The or ig ina l target was to have about one hundred t r a i n i n g centres by March , 1963, and to have ano­ther 50 in 1963-64. Because of the slow progress, it has now been deci­ded not to have addi t ional centres t i l l the capacity of the exis t ing cen­tres is f u l l y ut i l ised.

The Central Inst i tute of Pancha­yati Raj w i t h cent percent financial assistance from the M i n i s t r y is in charge of t r a in ing pr inc ipa ls and instructors of the Panchayat i Raj T r a i n i n g Centres. So far, some 160 teachers have been t ra ined at this Inst i tute.

To ensure the sound w o r k i n g of Panchayati Raj T r a i n i n g Centres, i t has been suggested that committees, representing officials and non-offi-cials, should be set up at the State level to look after them. The com­mittees, besides pe r iod ica l ly review­i n g the work of the Panchayat i Raj T r a i n i n g Centres, will also v i s i t the centres and give them on-the-spot guidance.

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