A free people are a people who choose their own representatives. A free people are a people who are governed by their will and ruled their consent. A free people are a people who participate in decisions affecting their lives and their destinies.

Gandhiji believed that democratic freedoms have to be founded in institutions of self - government in every village of India. He drew his inspiration and his vision from the Pachayats, the traditional "Village republics" of India. Panditji established the institutions of Panchayati Raj as the primary instrument for bringing development to the doorstep of rural India. Indiraji stressed the need for the people's participation in the processes of economic and social transformation.

Yet, there is no denying that, in most parts of the country, we have failed to fulfil the high hopes we had vested thirty years ago in the institutions of Panchayati Raj. Elections have been irregular. They are often unnecessarily delayed and frequently postponed.

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This is not a matter of political will. The best record of regular elections to Panchayati Raj institutions is of two Sate Governments which, since the inception of Panchayati Raj, have almost continuously been ruled by the Congress Party: Gujrat and Maharashtra. In recent times, some State Governments run by Opposition parties, such as the CPI (M) in West Bengal, the Telegu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh and the Janata Party in Karnataka, have held regular elections. In other States, the record or non - Congress parties and coalitions has not been much better than that of Congress - run State Governments. This is not a matter of political parties.

The essence of democracy is elections. Elections to Panchayati Raj institutions have been woefully irregular and uncertain. A mandatory provision in the Constitution is sacrosanct. A statutory provision in the State law does not quite have the same sanctity. We propose through this Bill to enshrine in the Constitution regular, periodic elections to Panchayati Raj institutions. We also propose through this Bill to end the other sickness which has overtaken Panchayati Raj in many parts of the country. That is the sickness of unending suspension and dissolution's. In the absence of any compelling provision to reconstitute Panchayats within a reasonable period of time, by democratic elections, suspended Panchayats have remained suspended for years on end, and dissolved Panchayats have remained dissolved for a decade and more. In the existing municipal law on the subject, State Legislatures have given the executive authority such wide powers to abort the institutions of Panchayati Raj, and delay reconstituting them, that these institutions have been leached of their ability to stand on their own as representative forums of the people's will. Their existence has depended less on the mandate of the people than the whims of State Governments.

Our Bill leaves it to the States to determine the grounds and conditions on which Panchayates may be suspended or dissolved. We expect State Legislatures to specify the grounds on which the Governor may suspend or dissolve a Panchayat. That is a matter for the Governor acting, in accordance with the Constitution, on the aid and advice of the State Government. Our concern is to ensure that a dissolved Panchayat is reconstituted within a reasonable period of time.

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Our Bill would make it mandatory through the Constitution for all Panchayats dissolved before the expiry of their term of office to be reconstituted through democratic elections based on adult suffrage within six months of the dissolution to complete the remaining term. No more will Panchayats remain the plaything of the arbitrary exercise of executive power. It is the people who will determine, within a matter of months, the profile of the reconstituted Panchayat.

It is the Constitution which ensures that the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies are constituted by the vote of the people on the basis of universal adult suffrage. It is the Constitution which ensures, that, if an Assembly is dissolved, it is reconstituted by a procedure and within a time - frame specified in the Constitution itself. These are essential safeguards to ensure the strength and vitality of democratic institutions. The institutions of Panchayati Raj have lacked strength and vitality precisely because they have lacked Constitutional safeguards.

Our Bill will ensure that Panchayati Raj has a democratic character similar to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies and Constitutional protection for their functioning as representative institutions of the people.

The single greatest event in the evolution of democracy in India was the enactment of the Constitution which established democracy in Parliament and in the State Legislatures. This historic, revolutionary Bill takes its place alongside that great event as the enthronement in the Constitution of democracy at the grassroots.

Till now, there have been weaknesses in the structure of our democracy because, although the superstructure is strong, the foundation has been weak.

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Putting together both Houses of Parliament and all the State Legislatures, we have only about 5000 to 6000 persons representing a population of nearly 800 million.

This has had two serious consequences. First, the number of persons holding elective office in well - founded institutions of democracy has been far too small in relation to the size of our electorate. Once we accord to democracy in the Panchayats the same sanctity as is now enjoyed by Parliament and the State Legislatures, we will opening the doors to the participation in democratic institutions of something like seven lakh elected representatives. The people's stake in democracy will be increased by a factor of approximately one hundred and fifteen.

There is a second deleterious consequence of the vast chasm that separates the general body of the electorate from the small number of its elected representatives. This gap had been occupied by the power - brokers, the middlemen, the vested interests. For the minutest municipal function, the people have had to run around finding persons with the right connections who would intercede for them with the distant sources of power. The system has been captured by the power - brokers. It is being protected by the power - brokers. The power brokers have established their vice - like grip only because democracy has not functioned at the grassroots. The only way of breaking their stranglehold is for democracy to fill the vacuum which the power - brokers have occupied. Once the people have their own elected representatives from electorates as small as a hundred to five hundred persons, the source of power will lie only as far away as the Panchayat Ghar, not some distant State capital or even more distant capital of the country.

To end any role for power - brokers in the system, the Bill provides for the direct election of members to Panchayats at all levels. Every voter will have his own representative in the Gram Panchayat, the midlevel Panchayat, and the Zila Panchayat. That representative will be responsible to a small and well - recognised electorate. If he fulfils the mandate of the people, he will re - elected. If he fails, the people will throw him out of office. The power of the vote will become the power of enforcement. The will of the people will render the power - broker superfluous.

Today, opportunity for democratically elected leadership is confined to the few thousands who succeed in entering the portals of the State Legislatures and the Parliament. Once this Bill becomes an integral part of the Constitution, a huge, country - wide reservoir of leadership potential will be created. At each Panchayat election, approximately half a crore men and women, most of them young, will present themselves to the electorate seeking the people's mandate. Some will succeed and some will fall by the wayside. Those who do not succeed will get another opportunity five years later.

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There is a vast uncultivated field of talent lying fallow in rural India. It is that fallow field we now propose to see. That field will be watered by the votes of the Members of this House and of your colleagues in Rajya Sabha. The crop of talent you raise will give us the bountiful harvest to take our nation forward to a prosperous, glorious future. There is no country richer than ours in the most precious asset of humankind - the human resource. We, in India, have not flourished as we should because we have not nurtured our greatest resource. This Bill makes it possible for the bulk of the nation's talent to be given opportunity. Throughout the country, there will be a ferment. In every one of our six hundred thousand villages, in every one of our five thousand blocks, in in every one of our four hundred districts, democracy will groom the men and women whose experience will subsequently become available to Legislatures at the State level and to the Parliament of the Union of India.

Our proposed Constitutional amendment lays the Constitutional injunction upon the State Legislatures. It is for the Sate Legislatures to enact the appropriate law. A quite unnecessary controversy has been raised about the role of the Governor in the proposed Panchayati Raj system. The Constitution is unambiguous on this point.

Article 154 (I) States that: "The executive power of the State shall be vested in the Governor." Article 163 (I) clarifies that: "There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions…" Therefore, the word Governor in the Constitution refers to the Governor exercising his executive powers only Ministers, with one exception. The exception is provided for in the remainder of Clause (I) of Article 163, which reads: "…except insofar as (the Governor) is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion."

The distinction between the expression "the Governor" and the expression "the Governor in his discretion" is such a well - known matter of Constitutional law that it is amazing there should be any confusion on this point. After all, the expression. "the Governor, "appears at scores of places throughout the Constitution and has nowhere been misconstrued or misinterpreted. We are confident that in this Parliament, acting in the exercise of its inherent constituent powers, there will be no confusion between the functions of a Governor acting in accordance with the aid and advice of his Council of Ministers and of a Governor acting in his discretion wherever the Constitution requires him to do so.

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In establishing the institutions of democracy in Parliament and in the State Legislatures, our founding fathers gave particular recognition to the disabilities suffered by the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, Provision was made for the reservation of seats for them in accordance with the proportion of their population in the total electorate. This is a principle which has not been incorporated in most of the Panchayati Raj legislation's enacted by the State Legislatures.

In my discussions with Panchayati Raj representatives, both during my extensive tours of rural India and in the numerous Panchayati Raj sammelans We have held, it was brought home to me most forcefully that the democratic rights of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes cannot be secured by good intentions alone. At this stage, it has to be secured; in the first instance, by reservations in Panchayati Raj institutions on the same basis as reservations are given in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies. I see that a certain section of the House is not happy about this. There is a widespread and justified apprehension on the part of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes that if their due representation in these bodies is not assured, Panchayati Raj could become an instrument of oppression in the hands of the rural elite. Experience in different parts of the country has shown how, in the absence of reservations, vested interests and feudal interests have been able to capture these institutions. Their hold on these institutions has been reinforced by the failure to hold regular elections. The people's mandate has been perverted into an instrument to exploitation.

To forestall such a perversion of the process, our Bill proposes to make it mandatory for Sate Legislatures to ensure reservation for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in the relevant Panchayat area. Our Bill also proposes a significant departure from the Constitution, as it exists today. We propose the reservation in Panchayats at all levels of 30 per cent of the seats for women.

There are three major reasons for which we believe the Constitutional innovation to be necessary. First, women constitute half the population and are involved in rather more than half the economic life of rural India. However, to our shame, their share of assets and income is much less than their share of the population but the toil and sweat imposed upon them is rather more than half. Second, the sound finance of the household has traditionally been the responsibility of the women. Financial discipline and fiscal responsibility are ingrained in the habits and outlook of the women of rural India.

I now turn to the heart of the matter: devolution and sound finance. Respecting the right of the States to legislate provision for devolution, we have deliberately refrained from tampering with their rights. We have no intention of attempting to rule the districts from the Centre. But we do expect the State Legislatures to enact such measures as are required to devolve powers and authority upon the Panchayats, keeping in mind the provisions of this Bill and the spirit in which this Amendment is being brought forward.

First is the power and authority of the Panchayats to draw up plans within the framework of guidelines and conditions to be stipulated by the State Governments. These plans will constitute the basic inputs for the planning process at higher levels. Thus will we ensure that the voice of the people, their felt needs, their aspirations, their priorities become the building blocks of the edifice of planning. We must put an end to planning from above. We must put an end to priorities being conceived and decided at ethereal heights, far removed from the realities on the ground. We must put an end to paternalistic planning. We must initiate a process of people's planning.

Our Bill goes beyond merely planning for economic development. It lays upon the Panchayats even heavier responsibility of planning for social justice. It will not do to romanticise life in our villages. Life there is hard. Life there is exacting. Life there is, in many ways, exploitative and oppressive.

The second major responsibility of the Panchayats will be the implementation of development schemes assigned to them by the State Governments on such conditions as may be specified by the Sate Governments. These schemes should cover the major economic concerns of rural India, commencing with agriculture and land improvement and going on to irrigation and watershed management. It must comprise the diversification of the rural economy into animal husbandry, daring, poultry and fisheries. It must incorporate industrial activity in rural India. It must extend to minor forest produce, which is the chief source of income for our entire tribal populace. It must encompass the day - to - day concerns of rural India: housing, drinking water, fuel and fodder. Devolution must deal with the basic infrastructure of communication and power in rural India. We have suggested the inclusion in the Panchayat's area of competence, development schemes relating to non - conventional energy sources.

The proposed Eleventh Schedule seeks to vest in the Panchayats, the major responsibility for the administration of poverty - alleviation programs. It would entrust the Panchayats with education and culture, as well as health and family welfare, woman and child development. We propose to request the State Legislatures to make social welfare programs for all the weaker and handicapped sections, a functional responsibility of the Panchayats. We also propose to give to the Panchayats the responsibility for the public distribution system, which is so crucial to the survival of the weaest and the poorest, as also to the general health of the rural economy.

The Bill proposes that the Panchayats be entrusted with the most neglected area of our community life, namely the maintenance of community assets. I would like to stress that the Eleventh Schedule is not an exhaustive list. We hope that the States will progressively devolve many more powers and authority upon the Panchayats so that whatever can be looked after at the local level is looked after at that level and not remitted upstairs.

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The single greatest danger we have to guard against is the devolution of powers to the Panchayats being followed by the transfer of these powers out of the Panchayati Raj system into other bodies constituted outside the system and placed under the direct control of State Governments. Almost all State Governments, whether Congress or non - Congress, who have established impact by constituting bodies outside the Panchayati Raj system where real powers of decision - making are vested and where the elected representatives of Panchayati Raj are overshadowed by Ministers appointed by the State Governments or, as in the case of Karnataka, by the MLA becoming the ex - officio Chairman of the Taluka Panchayat Samiti.

It is the purpose of our Bill to ensure that powers delegated to the Panchayats remain within the Panchayats and are not channeled outside the system. By the same token, our Bill is designed to ensure that all development agencies are brought within the framework of the Panchayati Raj institutions and made responsive to the elected authority. There are two basic reasons for administration at the district and sub - district levels having become so unresponsive to the people. One is the fragmentation of the district administration into a large number of agencies vertically owing responsibility to State Governments without adequate co - ordination at a Single focal point at the district level. The other has been the absence of an elected authority to function at that focal point.

The House would recall that our Government was returned to office with the largest mandate ever accorded to any party in the history of Independent India. I, as Head of that Government, pledged to make a number of structural changes. I very quickly discovered that the system could not cope with the demands which we were making upon it. There was too much ossification. Mere tinkering with the system would not do; a systemic transformation was essential. Indeed, the starting point of the exercise which has led to the presentation of this Bill was my search for a way of fulfilling the 20th point of our revised 20 - point Program of 1986, which promised to the people a responsive administration. At my instance, the Department of Personnel organised a series of Workshops on Responsive Administration to which were invited all the District Magistrates, Deputy Commissioners and Collectors of the country. I spent over 20 hours in discussion with them.

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It emerged that we could not make our administration responsive merely by simplifying procedures or establishing grievance redressed machinery or opening complaint windows. Every such step only led to the one more power centre for the power - brokers to occupy. The sine qua non of the electorate. Such responsive administration in rural India can only be secured thorough genuine Panchayati Raj. It is this that our Bill seeks to achieve. Devolution of administrative powers must go hand - in - hand with sound finance. Too often in the past, Panchayati Raj has had functions without finances, responsibilities without funds, duties without the means of carrying them out. Our Bill empowers State Legislatures to ensure the sound finance of the Panchayats by endowing them with the revenues of taxes that might be appropriated by, or assigned to them, as also with grants - in aid from the Consolidated Fund of the State. To assist State Legislatures and the executive authority in determining which taxes to assign or leave for appropriation, as also the grants - in - aid to be given, the Bill proposes the establishment of a Finance Commission to make suitable recommendations.

I would stress the importance of determining the taxes which will be levied, collected and appropriated by the Panchayats. Nothing will inculcate in the Panchayats a greater sense of fiscal responsibility than the possibility of retaining with them the moneys that they raise for such use as they best deem fit. United grants make for local - level planning. So far, the tendency has been to confine appropriation to ceases. We hope State Legislatures will go further and identify taxes, duties, tolls and fees which might be appropriated by the Panchayats.

We are asking the State Legislatures no more than we are ourselves ready to do as a Union Jawahar Rozagar Yojna. Eighty percent of the fund are being devolved on the village panchayats. We propose to extend this principle to other Centrally - sponsored schemes. There can be no better way of involving the people in their own development. There can be no better way of reducing corruption and nepotism. The system we propose is a transparent system. The bulk of the electorate in a Village is composed of the intended beneficiary of development schemes. Each intended beneficiary will know what schemes are available, how much money there is in the scheme, whether and how the moneys are being spent. Any Panch or Sarpanch who cheats the people will be removed by the people. There is no way he can escape the consequences of malfeasance.

I would now like to turn to those parts of the country we are proposing to exempt from the system, or in respect of which special provision is made for modification. In the North - East, there is one sparsely populated tribal State which has no difficulty in adopting Panchayati Raj without modification. This is the State of Arunachal Pradesh. The Bill recognises that in three other States of the North - East - Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram - there are traditional systems of self - government, akin to Panchayati Raj, which must be preserved. Indeed, the rest of the country would be well - advised to study and learn from the Village Development Boards of Nagaland. In these three States, the traditional systems will be left undisturbed.

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Similarly, in areas covered by the Sixth Schedule, where autonomous District Councils have been established, we would not wish to disturb the system so carefully structured. On the same principle, we are not extending the Bill to the District Council areas of Mnipur and the areas covered by the Gorkha Hill Council in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. As regards the Union territories, the Bill empowers the President to withhold, extend or modify the application of the provisions of the Bill to a part or the whole of the Union Territories. This is designed to ensure that traditional or nascent institutions in areas like the Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry are not adversely affected and that the special characteristics of Union Territories like Delhi are taken into account.

Similarly, in tribal areas covered by the Fifth Schedule, the Governor in his discretion (and not on advice of his Council of Ministers) may determine the conditions on which Panchayati Raj would be extended to these areas. Sir, the Bill proposes that all State Legislatures bring their State Legislation into conformity with the proposed Part IX of the Constitution within a year of the commencement of operation of the amendment. We recognize, however, that Panchayati Raj institutions have been elected in most States, some as recently as this year. The Bill authorizes the continuance of these Panchayats till the expiry of their terms, unless State Legislatures decide otherwise.

The interregnum between the passage of this Bill and the alignment of State Governments to give deep thought to the working of the new system. Panchayats will have to be given the staff they require. We do not propose that the annual confidential reports of the bureaucracy be written by elected representatives at the Panchayat level but the district bureaucracy will have to be trained and oriented towards discharging its new responsibilities in changed conditions. We have to build trust and mutual respect between the district bureaucracy and the elected Panchayats. At other levels of our democracy, in the States and at the Centre, the bureaucracy and the elected authority have learnt to work together in mutual co - operation. Such a harmonious relationship must also subsist between the district bureaucracy and the Panchayats. We hope State Governments will resist the temptation to effect a cleavage between the regulatory and development functions of district administration. There will have to be co - ordination because it is only through development administration that a regulating officer can establish the contacts and linkages essential to forestalling a law - and - order crisis or resolving it when it occurs.

We are deeply conscious, Sir, that this Bill restricts itself to democracy and development at the grassroots in rural India. We democracy and development at the grassroots in rural India. We must extend the same concern to the growing urban and semi - urban population of the country. To this end, Government proposes to bring forward major legislation in the next session of the Lok Sabha. We shall also turn our attention to recasting, revamping an rejuvenating the co - operative movement, which Panditji had always regarded as the essential complement to Panchayati Raj.

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Mr. Speaker, Sir, we come to this House after long consideration and a national debate without precedent. We have consulted with more than ten thousand representatives of Panchayati Raj institutions from all over the country. We have discussed Panchayati Raj with the bureaucracy at different echelons, including district officers, Chief Secretaries and Secretaries to the Government of India. We have held meetings with Panchayati Raj Ministers and the Chief Ministers of the States. We have extended the debate to political levels, within Party forums and in a Parliamentary Consultative Committee. Our proposals are before you but our mind is not closed. In the months to come, we hope there will be intensive debate about these proposals all over the country. We are prepared to carry forward such discussions with Opposition parties and Chief Ministers. We will, of course, listen with the utmost care to suggestions made on the floor of the House. We seek consensus, but we are prepared to face the challenge of confrontation. We shall fight for democracy for the people. We shall fight for development for the people. It is the people of India who are our first and foremost concern.

The proposals we place before the House are not really our proposals. They are the proposals of the people of India. We have drawn on the accumulated experience of Panchayati Raj from all over the country, the good experience as well as the bad, the experience of Congress run Governments as much as of State Governments run by other parties. This experience has been pooled and churned. Out of this manthan has emerged the amrit which we now propose to share.

Our democracy has reached the stage where the full participation of the people brooks no further delay. We are accused of rushing through this Bill. There has been no rush. For several years now, we have been holding well - publicised consultations at several different levels on Panchayati Raj. No one in the public life of this country could have been unaware of our intentions. Our respected Rashtrapatiji, in his address to both Houses of Parliament, had specifically referred to the major legislation on the subject which Government proposed to bring forward; We now fulfil that promise. Those who decry this as an election gimmick are precisely those whose feudal interests will be over - thrown by power reaching the people. We trust then people. We have faith in the people. It is the people who must determine their own destinies and the destiny of the nation. To the people of India, let us ensure maximum democracy and maximum devolution. Let there be an end to the power - brokers. Let us give power to the people.

2.Towards a Responsive and Representative Municipal Administration
3. Dimensions of Panchayati Raj and Nagarpalika Bills

Source: http://www.congresssandesh.com/publications/nagarpalikas.html