Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies of Bihar: Tiers and Articles

Local government is the third tier of the Indian federal system, and in Bihar it reaches almost every household through panchayats in the villages and municipal bodies in the towns. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts of 1992 gave both of them a place in the Constitution, and the state works them through the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 and the Bihar Municipal Act, 2007. BPSC, BSSC, Bihar Police and SSC papers ask the same things from this chapter: the tiers and the titles of their office-bearers, the article numbers of Part IX and Part IXA, the two Schedules that list their subjects, and the two features that set Bihar apart from other states, the Gram Kachahari and the reservation of half the seats for women.

How panchayati raj reached the Constitution

Article 40, a Directive Principle, asks the State to organise village panchayats as units of self-government. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957 recommended the three-tier design of gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zila parishad; Rajasthan inaugurated it at Nagaur on 2 October 1959 and Andhra Pradesh followed in the same year. The Ashok Mehta Committee of 1977 preferred two tiers, the G. V. K. Rao Committee of 1985 wanted the block to be the unit of planning, and the L. M. Singhvi Committee of 1986 was the first to demand constitutional status for panchayats. The 64th Amendment Bill of 1989 was cleared by the Lok Sabha but fell in the Rajya Sabha. The 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 then inserted Part IX, Articles 243 to 243-O, along with the Eleventh Schedule of 29 subjects, and came into force on 24 April 1993, the day now observed as National Panchayati Raj Day. The 74th Amendment Act, 1992 inserted Part IXA, Articles 243-P to 243-ZG, with the Twelfth Schedule of 18 subjects, and came into force on 1 June 1993. Bihar is an old hand at this: it had a Panchayat Raj Act of its own in 1947, passed a fresh Act in 1993 to match the amendment, and replaced that with the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006, which governs the system today.

The three tiers and the village court

A panchayat election in Bihar fills six kinds of posts at one go: ward member and Mukhiya of the Gram Panchayat, Panch and Sarpanch of the Gram Kachahari, member of the Panchayat Samiti and member of the Zila Parishad. The Mukhiya and the Sarpanch are elected directly by the voters of the panchayat, which is why both are named in question papers as directly elected heads; the Pramukh and the Adhyaksha are chosen by the elected members of the Panchayat Samiti and the Zila Parishad from among themselves, and the deputies the same way. Every tier has a term of five years under Article 243-E, the election must be completed before the term runs out, and a body dissolved early is reconstituted only for the remainder of the term, so a panchayat elected after a dissolution does not get a fresh five years.

Gram Sabha and Gram Kachahari

Article 243-A defines the Gram Sabha as the body of persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village within the area of a panchayat, and leaves it to the state legislature to say what powers it shall exercise. In Bihar the Gram Sabha approves the annual plan and the beneficiary lists of welfare schemes and takes the social audit of work done. The Gram Kachahari is Bihar's own institution, a village bench of the Sarpanch and the elected Panches that settles petty disputes between villagers; a Nyaya Mitra and a Nyay Sachiv assist it with the law and the record. It may impose a fine in the small matters listed in the Act, while serious offences go to the regular courts, and it keeps cases out of the district courts rather than replacing them.

Elections, reservation and the fifty per cent for women

Article 243-K vests the superintendence, direction and control of panchayat elections in a State Election Commission headed by a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor, so panchayat polls in Bihar are held by the Bihar State Election Commission and not by the Election Commission of India. The State Election Commissioner cannot be removed except in the manner and on the grounds that apply to a judge of a High Court. Article 243-F fixes 21 years as the minimum age to contest, against 25 for the Lok Sabha and a state assembly. Article 243-D reserves seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population and not less than one-third of all seats for women, including one-third of the offices of chairperson. Bihar went well past that floor: from the panchayat elections of 2006 it reserved fifty per cent of the seats and of the chairperson posts for women, the first state in the country to do so, and it also reserves seats for the Extremely Backward Classes.

Functions, funds and audit

Article 243-G lets the legislature devolve on panchayats the subjects of the Eleventh Schedule, from drinking water, roads and primary schools to poverty alleviation and rural electrification. Article 243-H allows the state to authorise a panchayat to levy and collect taxes and to give it grants-in-aid from the Consolidated Fund of the State. Article 243-I requires the Governor to constitute a State Finance Commission every five years to review the finances of panchayats and recommend how state taxes should be shared with them, and Article 243-Y does the same work for municipalities. Article 243-J leaves the audit of panchayat accounts to state law, and Article 243-ZD provides a District Planning Committee to consolidate the plans of the panchayats and the municipalities of a district. Article 243-O bars courts from interfering in electoral matters, including the delimitation of constituencies.

Urban local bodies of Bihar

Article 243-Q provides these three kinds of municipality, and the Governor decides which a place gets by looking at its population, the density of population, the revenue generated for local administration, the share of employment in non-agricultural work and the economic importance of the area. In Bihar they work under the Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, which replaced the older municipal laws; the Patna Municipal Corporation, the oldest and largest urban body of the state, was set up under the Patna Municipal Corporation Act, 1951. The elected head of a Nagar Nigam is the Mayor and of the smaller bodies the Mukhya Parshad, while the executive head is an officer, the Municipal Commissioner in a corporation and the Executive Officer elsewhere. Article 243-S requires Wards Committees in a municipality with a population of three lakh or more, and Article 243-ZE a Metropolitan Planning Committee for a metropolitan area of ten lakh or more. Municipal elections are held by the same State Election Commission under Article 243-ZA, the term is five years under Article 243-U, and Article 243-W lets the legislature hand over the eighteen subjects of the Twelfth Schedule, among them urban planning, water supply, slum improvement, fire services and the regulation of slaughter houses.