Incomplete devolution of power cause for inefficient local bodies: panel
Mani Shankar Aiyar-led committee criticizes centre; says careful delineation of functions, roles, finances needed
add_main_image New Delhi: A report looking into the deficiencies of local self governance in India has faulted the central government for incomplete devolution of powers to panchayats and urban local bodies two decades after Parliament recognised them as constitutional blocs for transferring democracy to the grassroots.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Union minister for panchayati raj and chairman of the committee that prepared the report, told reporters on Tuesday that India had come a long way since 24 April 1993 when the 73rd and 74rth amendments to the constitution were notified, recognizing the roles of panchayats and municipalities at the village, block and district levels and town and city levels, respectively, in the devolution of democracy and power to the people.NextMAds
But complete and effective operationalizing of the panchayati raj system has been hobbled mainly by “a lack of clarity as to how to proceed scientifically, objectively, methodically and practically down the path” of devolution, Aiyar told reporters.
Acknowledging a duplication of roles by government officials such as district collectors and panchayat and urban local body chiefs, Aiyar said the “key to effective devolution lies in activity mapping that is the careful delineation of functions, functionaries and finances” to the grassroots. “We are not recommending snatching the powers of legislatures or governments at the Centre or the states. We advocate instead... a new partnership be forged between the Centre and the states on the one hand and the panchayati raj institutions, on the other, for the benefits of (economic) growth to be reflected in the lives of the aam admi,” Aiyar said.
Giving the example of centrally sponsored schemes, Aiyar said that only two such programmes, including the marquee Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, allow the participation of the panchayat heads in decision making in a big way.
Under the programme, panchayat heads decide the work to be undertaken to “provide to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work not less than 100 days of work in a financial year”. They also prepare the rolls of workers and dispense wages as opposed to other centrally sponsored schemes in which the district collector plays the lead role.
The lack of people participation in such social welfare and empowerment programmes has ensured that though allocation for such schemes has “increased 25 times” in the past two decades, from ₹ 7,500 crore to ₹ 3 trillion now, India’s ranking on the United Nations Human Development Index “continues to stagnate at about the same position as it was in 1990”, Aiyar said. “Only 50 countries out of 186 are worse off than us. Outlays are not commensurate with outcomes,” he said. sixthMAds
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First Published:23 Apr 2013, 11:53 PM IST
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