LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

VILLAGE PANCHAYATS

The village panchayats form local units of administration for villages in the district. To co-ordinate the work of the village panchayats, an Act was passed in 1915 which was implemented in 1920. The supervision over the village panchayats was entrusted to the District Local Board then in existence. The Village Panchayats Act of 1946 provided panchayats in such villages having a population of above 1,000, above 500 and below 500, in three stages. Under the Act panchayats with membership of between 5 and 15 were established on the basis of adult franchise. They were to elect sarpanchas and up-sarpanchas from amongst the members.

The Act divided the duties of the village panchayats into obligatory and optional. The former included sanitary and health measures, construction and repairs of roads, provision of water-supply and undertaking such works meant for public convenience, while the latter included those of construction and maintenance of dharmashalas. development of agriculture, co-operation, etc.

The income of village panchayats was to be derived from various sources such as cesses, house tax, sanitary tax, etc. A few gram panchayats were entrusted with the performance of judicial functions. The Bombay Village Panchayats Act was passed in 1958 and made applicable to the district. Under the Act females were represented in the panchayats for the first time. The membership of revenue patil, who was ex-officio member of the panchayat was abrogated. The special features of the Act are―

(a) constitution of gram sabhas with all adult residents of the village as members;

(b) appointment of secretary of a village panchayat as a full-fledged Government servant;

(c) collection of land revenue and maintenance of land records by the panchayats:

(d) constitution of group nyaya panchayats for five or more villages with fairly wide judicial powers, both in civil and criminal matters. With the formation of the Zilla Parishad. the district panchayat mandal was abolished and the Village Panchayat Officer now designated as Administrative Officer works under the Zilla Parishad. The control over village panchayats is exercised through the Panchayat Samitis.

The number of independent group village panchayats, and the number of inhabited villages in the years 1961 and 1971 are shown in the following statement: -

In 1966-67 the number of village panchayats was 1,067 covering 1,324 villages in the district. In the year 1970-71, 1,324 villages were covered by 1,076 village panchayats, of which 191 were group-village panchayats and 885 independent village panchayats. These village panchayats covered a population of 15,96,000. The total number of scats for these 1,076 village panchayats was 10,200, of which 3,215 seats were reserved for women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The break-up of income of all village panchayats in the district for the years 1961-62 and 1969-70 is shown below: -

The following is the break-up of the total expenditure of all village panchayats for the year 1961-62: -

In 1963-64 the income and expenditure of 893 village panchayats amounted to Rs. 55,05,000 and Rs. 45,54,000, respectively. The panchayat samiti-wise figures of income and expenditure of village panchayats for the year 1966-67 are shown in the following statement:-

The total income of all Panchayats during 1966-67 was Rs. 68.23 lakhs while the expenditure amounted to Rs. 75.24 lakhs as against the income of Rs. 86.12 lakhs and expenditure of Rs. 91.81 lakhs during 1965-66. Taxes and fees together accounted for Rs. 28.41 lakhs or 42 per cent of the total income during the same year. The total amount received as grants was to the tune of Rs. 35.48 lakhs or 52 per cent of the total income. On the expenditure side the lion's share of expenditure was taken up by the public works, the amount being Rs. 35.12 lakhs, i.e., 47 per cent of the total expenditure. Expenditure on administration was Rs. 10.92 lakhs or 14 per cent of the total expenditure. During 1970-71, the total expenditure amounted to Rs. 84,90,800 and the per capita expenditure was put at Rs. 5.32. The expenditure per village panchayat came to Rs. 7,891.

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