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 grampanchayats lost their importance due to centralization of power. In the beginning of the 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 population 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 between 5 and 15 were established on the basis of male adult franchise. They were to elect a Sarpanch and 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 panchayat 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 to undertake 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 grampanchayats were to undertake the optional functions provided their funds permitted.

The incomes to the village panchayats were derived from various sources such as cesses, house-tax, sanitary-tax and other taxes as also grants from Janapad Sahhas and the Government.

Judicial functions were also performed by a few grampanchayats. They were authorised to impose fine up to Rs. 20 and conduct civil suits of the value of not more than Rs. 100. Panchayats Act 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 Panchyats Act 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 got representation in the panchayats and the membership of revenue Patils 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) the secretary of a village panchayat to be a Government servant and 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) payments 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 panchayats for five or more villages with fairly wide judical powers, both civil and criminal.

A District Village Panchayat Officer was appointed to look after the administration of village panchayats in Yeotmal district. He assists the Collector in his functions and duties in respect of administration of village panchayats with the aid of District Auditor, five Sub-Auditors and other necessary staff. Besides, two Social Welfare Inspector were also allotted to the district as supervisory staff.

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 was completed in the district. There were 1,096 village panchayats covering 1,892 villages in 1968. The entire rural area of the district is now covered by village panchayats.

Village panchayats in the district get land revenue grants at a uniform rate of twenty-five per cent of land revenue collected during the preceding year.

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 Parishads and the Panchayat Samitis.

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