The Gazetteers Department

During the early times every village was a self sufficient unit and was administered by gram panchayats. During the British regime, the gram panchayats lost their importance due to centralization of power. In the beginning of 19th century growing need was felt for at least granting restricted local government so as to keep away the popular discontent. Accordingly an Act was passed in 1915, which was implemented in 1920 by the establishment of a few village panchayats in the district. The supervision was entrusted to the District Council, then in existence.

Village Panchayats Act of 1946.

The Village Panchayats Act of 1946, brought in force from 1946, envisaged the establishment of village panchayats for villages, the popula- tion of which was above 1,000, above 500 and below 500 in three stages. Within one year, the phased programme was completed except for a few villages in the last stage.

According to the Act of 1946 the panchayats with membership of between 5 and 15 were established on the basis of male adult franchise. They were to elect a sarpanch and an up-sarpanch from amongst themselves. The revenue patil of the village was an ex-officio member of the panchayat.

The Act divided the duties of the village panchayats into obligatory and optional. The obligatory duties of the village panchayats included sanitary and health measures, construction and repairs of roads, maintenance of birth and death registers, providing water-supply, and undertaking such other works meant for public convenience, while the optional duties involved construction and maintenance of dharmashalas, development of agriculture, co-operation, veterinary services, etc. The gram panchayats were to undertake the optional functions provided their funds permitted.

The income of the village panchayats was derived from various sources such as cess, house-tax, sanitary-tax and other taxes as also grants from Janapad Sabhas and the Government.

Judicial functions were also performed by a few gram panchayats. They were authorised to impose fine up to Rs. 20 and conduct civil suits of the value of not more than Rs. 100. The appeals against the decisions were heard by the District and Sessions Judge. The panchayats were authorised to appoint the secretaries and other necessary staff.

Village Panchayats Act of 1958.

After the reorganisation of States, the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, 1958, was made applicable to the district.

According to the Act of 1958 which came into force in the district from June 1 1959, women were given representation in the panchayats and the membership of revenue Patil who were ex-officio members of the panchayats was abrogated. The division of the duties of village panchayats as obligatory and optional was annulled and the panchayats were made responsible for the all round development of villages. The Act has given wide powers to village panchayats.

The special features of the new Act are—

(a) reservation of two seats for women in every village panchayat,

(b) constitution of gram sabhas of all adult residents of the village,

(c) establishment of District Village Panchayat Mandal for every district (now defunct since the formation of the Zilla Parishad),

(d) appointment of the secretary of a village panchayat as a Government servant, to be paid by Government,

(e) the training of a village panchayat secretary to be undertaken at its own cost,

(f) entrusting the work of collection of land revenue and maintenance of land records to village panchayats,

(g) payment to village panchayats of grants-in-aid of not less than 25 per cent of the land revenue collected in villages, and

(h) constitution of group nyaya panchayat for five or more villages with fairly wide judicial powers, both civil and criminal.

With the formation of the Zilla Parishad the District Panchayat Mandal has been abolished and the Village Panchayat Officer now works with the Zilla Parishad. The control of the village panchayats now vests in the Zilla Parishad through Panchayat Samitis.

The coverage programme under village panchayats as envisaged under the Second Five Year Plan is now completed in the district. There are 454 village panchayats covering the entire rural area of the district with 1,353 villages.

Organisation.

Village panchayats in the district get land revenue grants at a uniform rate of 30 per cent of the land revenue collected during the preceding year. The total amount disbursed on account of land revenue grants in 1967-68 amounted to Rs. 4,18,014.60.

Village panchayats have recently gained importance not only as administrative units but also as basic institutions for rural planning and all round development of rural areas. Village panchayats have been made the sole non-official agency for executing development works in the Community Development Blocks with the democratic decentralization envisaged by the establishment of the Zilla Parishad and the Panchayat Samitis.

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