Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies of Madhya Pradesh Notes

Madhya Pradesh is the state that moved first when panchayati raj was written into the Constitution. The 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts of 1992 made panchayats and municipalities constitutional bodies, and Madhya Pradesh passed its own law in 1993 and held its panchayat elections in 1994, before any other state had constituted panchayats under the new Part IX. The system runs today under the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993, while the towns work under the Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palik Nigam Adhiniyam, 1956 and the Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palika Adhiniyam, 1961. MPPSC, MP Police, Patwari and SSC papers ask for the names of the three tiers, the office-bearers, the article numbers and the two reforms that belong to this state alone, Gram Swaraj and the right to recall.

The constitutional frame

Article 40, a Directive Principle, asked the State to organise village panchayats, and the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957 gave the three-tier design that Rajasthan inaugurated at Nagaur on 2 October 1959. The L. M. Singhvi Committee of 1986 demanded constitutional status, the 64th Amendment Bill of 1989 failed in the Rajya Sabha, and the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 finally inserted Part IX, Articles 243 to 243-O, with the Eleventh Schedule of 29 subjects; it came into force on 24 April 1993, now 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. Both made three things compulsory for every state: a three-tier structure in states with a population above twenty lakh, elections every five years held by a State Election Commission, and reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women.

The three tiers in Madhya Pradesh

The names matter in the examination hall. Where Bihar and Uttar Pradesh say Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad, Madhya Pradesh says Janpad Panchayat and Zila Panchayat, and where Bihar calls the village head Mukhiya, Madhya Pradesh calls him Sarpanch. The Panches of the wards and the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat are elected directly by the voters; the Up-Sarpanch is chosen by the Panches from among themselves, and the Adhyaksha and Up-Adhyaksha of the Janpad and Zila Panchayats by their own elected members. Panchayat elections in the state are fought without party symbols. Every tier has a term of five years under Article 243-E, the fresh election must be completed before the term ends, and a panchayat reconstituted after an early dissolution serves only the rest of the term, not a new five years.

Gram Sabha and the Gram Swaraj reform

Article 243-A makes the Gram Sabha the body of all persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village and leaves its powers to state law. Madhya Pradesh used that freedom in 2001, when the Gram Swaraj system came into force and made the Gram Sabha, rather than the Gram Panchayat, the centre of village decision-making. Under it a village has a Gram Sabha with its own committees for development, education, health and agriculture, and a Gram Kosh or village fund built from contributions of grain, labour, material and cash. The Gram Sabha approves the annual plan, selects the beneficiaries of welfare schemes and conducts the social audit of works, and the Gram Panchayat executes what it decides. This is why the state Act itself was renamed the Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam.

PESA in the Scheduled Areas

A large part of Madhya Pradesh is tribal and falls in the Fifth Schedule. Part IX does not apply there on its own; the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, known as PESA, extends it with changes. In a Scheduled Area the Gram Sabha is supreme: it safeguards tradition and custom, approves plans and beneficiary lists, is consulted before land is acquired or a person displaced, controls minor water bodies and minor forest produce and has a say in the grant of minor mineral leases and in the control of local liquor sale. Madhya Pradesh has framed rules to carry PESA out in its Scheduled Areas, and the Act is a standing question in MPPSC papers.

Elections, reservation and the right to recall

Article 243-K gives the superintendence, direction and control of panchayat elections to a State Election Commission headed by a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor, and Article 243-ZA does the same for municipal elections, so the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission and not the Election Commission of India holds these polls. Article 243-F fixes 21 years as the minimum age to contest. Article 243-D reserves seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in the panchayat area and at least one-third of all seats and chairperson posts for women; Madhya Pradesh has raised the share of women to one half in its panchayats and urban bodies. The state is also known as the first to give voters the right to recall a directly elected head of a local body before the end of the term, a provision no other state had tried.

Urban local bodies of Madhya Pradesh

Article 243-Q provides these three categories and the Governor decides which one a place gets from its population, the density of population, the revenue generated for local administration, the percentage of employment in non-agricultural work and the economic importance of the area. A Municipal Corporation in Madhya Pradesh works under the Nagar Palik Nigam Adhiniyam of 1956 and the smaller bodies under the Nagar Palika Adhiniyam of 1961; the Mayor is the elected head and the Municipal Commissioner, an officer of the state, the executive head. Article 243-S requires Wards Committees where the population is three lakh or more and Article 243-ZE a Metropolitan Planning Committee for a metropolitan area of ten lakh or more. Article 243-W lets the legislature entrust the eighteen subjects of the Twelfth Schedule, and Article 243-ZD provides the District Planning Committee, the Zila Yojana Samiti, which consolidates the plans of the panchayats and the municipalities of a district. Money follows the same pattern as functions: Article 243-H for panchayat taxes, Article 243-X for municipal taxes, and State Finance Commissions every five years under Articles 243-I and 243-Y.