Local government and its representatives
By Yawer Hamid
As we observe on a daily basis the working of panchayats 1959 has been a success in a few states and failure in most of the states. It means that the system has been experiencing ups and downs since ages. The history of panchayat Raj institutions 1959 could be conveniently divided into four stages the face of acidency ,the phase of stagnation, the phase of decline and the phase of revival, the overall attempts to review the panchayat raj institutions could be the last phase when the Ashok Mehta committee report has evoked interest among the politicians and people like in the year 1983. It would be absolutely wrong to blame panchayat Raj institutions by saying that they remain inactive and lethargic in most of their functions. However, we observe a number of shortcomings in the panchayat raj institutions . Let us try to identify the problem areas and find out the remedial measures so that the institutions at the grassroot level would be able to fulfill the promises for which they have been credited.
1:there are few who called the panchayat raj institutions the tools of Democratic seed drilling in the Indian soil .in the process of panchayat Raj institutions are dominated by socially and economically rich sections in rural India who continue to dominate the people belonging to the poor communities. For example, people belonging so called higher caste is continued to dominate lower cases and benefits don’t reach to the people who are in real need. As a result ,the government has to intervene to provide the benefits to the poor people through some other means. But many times government officials pay attention to increase their own bank balance .Further the state control of panchayat Raj in association in the ruler development activities is increasing continuously, there is thus. Confusion about the role of panchayat Raj institutions in the rural development programmes.
2: Widespread illiteracy and ignorance among the ruler people remained a major hindrance in a way of the successful operation of panchayat Raj. It prevented the people from becoming active and willing partners in the system by virtue of being poor people are not given a chance to participate in elections. They are being just manipulated and exploited by giving basic amenities for the sake of vote to someone. Such moments affect the true nature of local government which leads to devastation of local government in the eyes of everyone.
3:The inability of the representatives elected by the ruler to comprehend fully the programs and policies of the panchayat Raj and their apathy towards their duties as representatives of the people together made the working of the panchayat raj institutions inefficient.
4:Ruler poverty, literacy and ignorance are together responsible for a low level of political awareness among the people of rural areas. This prevented the adoption of the panchayat raj by them as a system of self government and self development. At times , what happens in remote areas ,panches and sarpanches take the funds from government for the sake of development but in actual they keep them in their own accounts and show the local village works done by previous year to concerned members of government.
5: The panchayat raj institutions are allocated limited sources of income. These are expected to perform a large number of Civic and development functions. However, shortage of funds always hampered their efforts, shortage of funds kept panchayat Raj institutions dependent upon grants -in -aid this dependency compelled the people to regard the panchayat raj as a government program and they failed to accept it as a system of self government.
6: ineffectiveness of Gram Sabha means the gram sabha which was designed as a village of assembly of all the adult people inhabiting a particular panchayat area failure to become really operative. It existed only on paper; it didn’t come forward to undertaker stipulated task of maintaining supervision and control over the panchayat.
7:Benefits mostly to one class; The objective of securing the environment of all the people of rural areas in the process of securing development through community efforts was put into practice but it benefited only the rich landLords and the upper classes of the ruler people. The rich landlords dominated the election to the panchayat elections and therefore, became the dominant actors in the working of other two institutions of the panchayat raj. the ruler poor failed to really get involved in it. most of them continued to live below poverty line and found little interest in the working of these institutions of self government the apathy on the part of the ruler woman and inadequate opportunities available to them further acted as a big hands in the way of working of panchayat Raj.
8: Voting behaviour of common people, this is one of the most popular issue in local government. This voting choice does not remain in the hands of people. Their choice is being manipulated by giving basic home appliances. It is not seen basically who deserves to seat but one who has power to make people happy through money and other facilities is being selected on the basis of corruption. In addition, after coming to power in a wrongful manner, they try to loot the government through different ways.
In conclusion we could say that the problems that are associated with the local government discussed above could leave a harmful effect on the development in remote areas like lack of development and exploitation of many people healing from poor communities. The impact of a lack of local government or ineffective governance can result in poor public services, inadequate infrastructure, and limited community development. It may lead to a lack of proper resource allocation, hindering education, healthcare, and other essential services for residents. Additionally, without effective local governance, community engagement and representation may suffer, affecting people’s ability to voice concerns and participate in decision-making processes. Loopholes in local government can foster corruption, mismanagement, They may allow for exploitation of public funds, undermining essential services. Lack of transparency and accountability can erode public trust, hindering community development. Addressing these loopholes is crucial for fostering fair governance and improving citizens’ well-being.
Writer is a student of political science at University of Kashmir
and you can reach to him at [email protected]