Rajasthan Panchayati Raj and State Commissions Notes

Rajasthan holds a permanent place in the story of local self government in India, because it is where panchayati raj was first set in motion. That single fact is the most asked question in this topic, and around it sits a set of equally fixed facts: the committee whose report led to it, the amendment that gave panchayats a place in the Constitution, the three tiers with the title of each chairperson, and the commissions through which the state runs its recruitment, elections, human rights and grievance work.

How panchayati raj began in Rajasthan

After independence the Community Development Programme of 1952 and the National Extension Service showed that rural development schemes failed without people taking part in them. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, which reported in 1957, therefore recommended democratic decentralisation through a three tier structure of elected bodies at the village, the block and the district. Rajasthan acted on it first. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated panchayati raj in the country at Nagaur on 2 October 1959, and Andhra Pradesh followed on 1 November of the same year. The state already had the Rajasthan Panchayat Act of 1953 for village panchayats, and the Rajasthan Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads Act of 1959 created the two higher tiers.

The 73rd Amendment and the Act of 1994

For three decades panchayats depended on the will of state governments and in many states elections were simply not held. The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 ended that by inserting Part IX, Articles 243 to 243O, and the Eleventh Schedule, which lists 29 subjects that may be devolved to panchayats. The amendment came into force on 24 April 1993, which is now observed as National Panchayati Raj Day. Rajasthan brought its law into line with the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act of 1994, with the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Rules of 1996, and the three tiers have since been elected regularly for fixed five year terms.

The three tiers in Rajasthan

Below the gram panchayat there is no elected body, but the state provides for a ward sabha of the voters of each ward, and above the district the District Planning Committee, provided for by Article 243ZD, consolidates the plans of the rural and urban bodies of the district.

Elections, reservation and term

• Elections to all three tiers are held by the Rajasthan State Election Commission, a body provided for by Article 243K and headed by a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor.
• Every tier has a term of five years, and an election must be completed before the term ends; a body dissolved early is reconstituted for the rest of the term only.
• The minimum age to contest is 21 years, and the voters of a ward elect their panch, while the sarpanch is elected directly by the voters of the whole gram panchayat.
• The pradhan and the pramukh are not elected directly; they are chosen by the elected members of the panchayat samiti and the zila parishad from among themselves.
• Seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in the area, with reservation for the backward classes as state law provides, and Rajasthan reserves half of the seats as well as half of the offices of sarpanch, pradhan and pramukh for women.

The Gram Sabha

Article 243A gives the Gram Sabha constitutional recognition. It is not a committee of members but the body of all persons registered in the electoral rolls of the village or villages within a gram panchayat area, so every adult voter is a member. It meets on fixed days, considers the annual accounts and the audit report, approves the panchayat plans and the lists of beneficiaries of welfare schemes, and conducts the social audit of works. In Rajasthan the Gram Sabha has had real work to do, because the state has a long record of citizens demanding records of local spending: the movement led by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan at Beawar in 1996 grew out of panchayat level accounts, and Rajasthan went on to pass its own right to information law in 2000, five years before the central Act of 2005.

The state commissions

Two points about these bodies are examinable in themselves. The members of the Public Service Commission and the State Election Commissioner are appointed by the Governor, and the State Election Commissioner enjoys the protection of being removable only in the manner and on the grounds of a judge of a High Court, which is what keeps local elections out of the hands of the government of the day. The state commissions for human rights, women, child rights and backward classes are recommendatory: they inquire, summon records and advise the government, and they do not pass binding orders like a court.

How to revise this topic

Learn the four dates in order, 1957 for the Balwant Rai Mehta report, 1959 for Nagaur, 1992 for the amendment with 1993 for its commencement, and 1994 for the Rajasthan Act. Then fix the ladder of titles, sarpanch, pradhan and pramukh with their officers, and keep the Articles in a line: 243A for the Gram Sabha, 243I for the State Finance Commission, 243K for the State Election Commission and 243ZD for the District Planning Committee.