TO BRING in transparency at the panchayat level, Punjab is planning to reintroduce direct election, in which village residents choose their sarpanch. The state had switched to indirect election in 2008. Under the system elected panchayat members chose a sarpanch among themselves. Indirect election makes it easy to remove a …
THE Union ministry of panchayati raj has suggested amendments to streamline local governance in the tribal areas of north-eastern states. The draft amendments to existing laws governing local bodies in the Sixth Schedule areas would help fight insurgency prevailing in the region and effectively implement Central government programmes, such as …
Panchayats and municipal bodies will now have three times more money to spend—at their own will. The 13th Finance Commission has pushed for greater autonomy for local governments by vesting spending power in their hands instead of the state, while increasing their non-plan expenditure from Rs 20,000 crore to Rs …
The implementation of decentralisation reform as embodied in the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution has suffered from complete negligence. The two recent articles by Oommen and Sivaramakrishnan have highlighted the inexplicable attitudes of the finance commissions and the judiciary towards decentralisation.
The State Finance Commission, although a technical and quasijudicial constitutional entity like the Union Finance Commission, has to help local governments plan for economic development and deliver social justice and public services at the local level. This article evaluates the history of the performance of SFCs in general and shows …
Decentralization is broadly defined as transfer of power to the lower level of government (PRIs). It mainly takes three forms, namely political, administrative and fiscal. The legitimacy of the centralized system of governance is on a decline because of various factors including lower participation by people, lack of accountability, weak …
