Report filed by the Additional Secretary, Local Self Government Department, Kerala in the matter of Tribunal on its own motion Suo Motu based on the report dated 26.06.2023 received from Hon’ble Justice A.V. Ramakrishna Pillai on the Present Status of Waste dump site at Cubaloor in Mangalpady Panchayat, Kasargod District, …
The Union rural development ministry has stopped release of further funds to 8 states that have failed to hold elections to the panchayat raj institutions as required under the Panchayat Raj Act, imperilling the future of scores of rural development projects. The ministry has served notices to the governments of …
An ambitious programme of mapping the land resources of every village panchayat in Kerala has run into trouble. The project was conceived in 1988 by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad and the Centre for Earth Sciences (ces), but lack of proper funding has since tied in up in knots. While …
GRAM PANCHAYAT: The village-level council covering 1 or more villages, depending on population. It consists of 10-20 elected members led by the sarpanch and the up-sarpanch. JANPAD PANCHAYAT: The block-level body and second tier of the system, encompassing the gram panchayats within the block. The janpad has 10-25 members, including …
The implementation of panchayati raj is expected to provide a fillip to various grassroot movements in the state, thanks to activists being elected. About 700 sarpanches are affiliated to the Ekta Parishad, an ngo. In Bilaspur, more than 1,000 panches and sarpanches are associated literacy programmes. The Narmada Ghati Nav …
• Panchayats are free to choose their development priorities, allot funds and set time-limits for programme implementation, generate internal resources, collect taxes and impose fines. • They will be able to trade, remove structures and trees, maintain sanitation, drainage, water works and sources of water, regulate use of water and …
UNTIL recently, Virender Singh and Churawan Lal were leading ordinary lives in obscure villages in Madhya Pradesh. On August 20, a change came their way and subjects became rulers. Both were formally endowed with powers under the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1993. Singh of Behat in Gwalior district and …
Any initiation of local democracy unmanacled of centralisation is always welcome: it provides a grab-as-grab-can opportunity for the chained to grab the ballot as a vehicle of expressing their desires. The twist, however, is that the state wilfully distorts the popular demands from below, diverting and diluting the emerging challenge …
The people of Sheregaon village in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra heaved a sigh of relief early this month when the Bombay High Court sealed the fate of the Rs-700-crore Sterlite Copper Smelting plant. Delivering its verdict, the High Court bench comprising of 3 judges noted that the panchayat of Sheregaon …
THE country took a big step towards giving more power to the people with the Panchayati Raj Act becoming operational on April 23 following all states and Union territories amending their respective legislations in conformity with the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act. Said minister for rural development Rameshwar Thakur, "This will …
THE RECENT controversy over the national and global role of non-government organisations (NGOs), generated at the preparatory meeting for the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Environment and Development (ICPD) in New York is seething with portents. It seems to be one more issue over which the North and the South …
When the Karnataka government announced substantial reservation of seats for the "backward and the oppressed classes" in the state's panchayats in 1992, it was welcomed by most experts and analysts. They felt grassroots democracy in India would flourish if the weaker sections of society were guaranteed representation. However, when panchayat …
AFTER a nearly two-year break, Karnataka's pioneering panchayati raj experiment will continue in December and January, when elections will be held to village, taluka and district bodies under a new panchayati raj act. But in the run-up to the elections, the campaign to oust Karnataka chief minister M Veerappa Moily …
• State legislature should decide the powers of gram sabhas. • All states must have panchayats at the village level. But state legislatures can decide if they want panchayats also at the intermediate (block, taluka etc) and district levels. • All seats in village panchayats and intermediate panchayats shall be …
• State legislatures can decide the composition of municipalities. • State legislatures can decide whether they want committees at the ward level or other levels within a municipal area. • The state legislatures will decide the power and authority they want to give municipalities. • Seats will be reserved for …
DESPITE the cynicism of sceptics, a brace of proposed constitutional amendments could empower the people to take control of their environment and turn it clean and green. But this dream will come true only if the proposed political decentralisation is truly democratic and results in the creation of participatory institutions …
IT IS indeed unfortunate that the two Constitutional amendment bills to strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions and urban municipalities have received little public attention. Political decentralisation has the potential to revitalise this country in more ways than one. Theoretically speaking, it can give power to the people in a way that …
In India, recent micro-experiments clearly show that environmental regeneration is possible if native wisdom and local decision-making is respected. Towards Green Villages sets out an environmental improvement strategy that is based on real life experiences of grassroots work in which people have improved their environment together with their economy. Three …
Development of Humane Action (DHAN) Foundation, a professional development organisation, was initiated on October 2, 1997. It brings highly motivated, educated young women and men to the development sector. They would make new innovations in development to root out poverty from the country. The Foundation works to make significant changes …
