PANCHAYATI RAJ, DECENTRALISED PLANNING AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

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2 PANCHAYATI RAJ, DECENTRALISED PLANNING AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

3 PANCHAYATI RAJ, DECENTRALISED PLANNING AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT SHABN AM TH AKUR ABHIJEET PUBLICATIONS NEW DELHI

4 ABH1JEET PUBLICATIONS 4658-A, 21 A nsari Road, New Delhi Phone: , E-m ail: abhijeetpu blication@ gm ail.com P A N C H A Y A T I R A J, D E C E N T R A L I S E D PI A N N 1 N G A N D R U R A L D E V E L O P M E N T First Published 2012 A uthor ISBN [All rights reserved No part of this p u b lica tio n m ay be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, transm itted or used in any form or by any m eans, w hether electronic, m echanical, photocopying, recording or otherw ise, w ithout the prior perm ission from (he author or publishers, except for a brief quotations in critical articles or rev iew s.] PRIN TED IN I N D I A Published by j.k- Singh for Abhijeet Publications, New IXIhi , Lasertypeset by C'.aurav Giaphics, Delhi and Printed at Himanshu Printers, Delhi.

5 Acknowledgements The present work is based on research conducted on a project entitled as "Panchayati Raj, Decentralised Planning and Rural Developm ent", Gurgaon and Faridabad were the two districts selected for field study. The Research Project was launched on w ith the financial support of University Grants Commission, New Delhi and completed on The project was conducted at Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. In course of completion of the study I received maximum help and cooperation from various organizations and indiv iduals. I shall be failing in my duty, if I do not record my appreciation for them. First of all may grateful thanks are due to my supervisor and guidance and patronage. Any amount of thanks may prove inadequate to express my indebtedness to him as he has always blessed me in my academ ic endeavour. I am grateful to the Department of Political Science University of Delhi for giving me affiliation for this Researc h Project. I am specially indebted to Prof. S.N. Mishra of Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, for his guidance, support and suggestions. Prof. Mishra stood by me in difficult times and encouraged me to com plete the project. The officials f Government of Haryana, both at the Secretariat and field level are also claimants of my thanks for arranging

6 (vi) field study and providing all sorts of facility during the course of the project. Thanks are also due to my husband, Mr. Sudhir Sinha, IAS, for coping with me and travelling with me in the fixed tours. His experience in administration helped me in writing. My research assistant Mr. Raj Kapoor needs special thanks for assisting me in all fields of the research. Thanks are also due to Dr. Devendra Verma, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Mrs. Rupinder Brar, HAS, Prof. Suresh Misra of H1PA, for their patience and support rendered to me during the course f the study. Last but not the least, 1 am equally indebted to the typist Ms. Aparna and Deepak Kumar who patiently helped in bringing out several drafts of the study and giving the final shape to the study on computer. Shabnam Thaku r

7 Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations v ix 1. Introduction 2. Decentralization: A Historical Perspective 3. Salient Features of the Constitution's 73rd Amendment Act 4. Rural Developm ent, Decentralized Planning and G overnm ent's Initiatives for the New Century 5. Panchayati Raj, Decentralized Planning and Rural Development: Case Study of Two Districts ot Haryana 6. Awareness and Perception of the Panchayati Raj Representatives with Regard to Panchayati Raj, Decentralised Planning and Rural Development 7. Awareness and Perception of Beneficiaries with Regard to Panchayati Raj and Various Rural Development Programmes 8. O fficials' Perception of Panchayati Raj Institutions 9. Findings and Recom mendations Bibliography A p p e n d ix

8 Abbreviations ADO BDO BDPO CDP CEO DDC DP DRDA GP GS JRY MPl.ADS PRI's SFC VP ZP Agriculture Developm ent Officer Block Developm ent Officer Block Developm ent and Planning Officer Community Development Programme Chief Executive Officer District Development Commissioner District Panchayat District Rural Developm ent Agency Gram Panchayat Gram Sabha Jawahar Rozgar Yojana Members of Parliament l ocal Area Development Scheme Panchayati Raj Institutions State Finance Commission Village Panchayat Zila Parishad

9 1 Introduction The concept of Rural Development involves the processes of positive changes in rural areas within the framework of the national goals of development. According to Waterston rural development is generally conceived of as a multi-sectorial activity, which includes, besides agricultural development and rural industry, the establishment or improvement of social overhead facilities or infrastructure (schools, clinics, roads, communications and water supply) and welfare services or programmes.1 Rural D evelopm ent has alw ays been an im portant objective of development planning in India. A number of policies and programmes have been introduced since independence, yet after five decades of independence millions of people remain below the poverty line clearly indicating the failure of our rural development policies and programmes in so far as access to resources and distributive justice are concerned. The reasons for the relatively poor performance of rural development programmes are many but evidence sug.*est that they often missed their mark because of institutional and administrative weaknesses at the local level. Local implementing agencies lacked adequate personnel, financial and physical resources, and also the motivation to implement these programmes effectively. To correct this situation, it is now strongly felt that the development problems at the local level have to be solved with active participation of the people. It has been realized rural areas can be changed from below more organically and effectively than from above. Thus it is only when the "small man" and his environment are improved at the grass root level that large scale

10 2 Panchayati Raj, Decentralised Planning & Rural Development changes can become a reality. For this purpose, in the eighties the idea of conferring, constitutional status to the PRI's gained momentum. The first bill providing constitutional status to PRI's was introduced in the form of 64th Constitution Amendment Bill by Mr. Rajiv Gandhi's Government in However due to a num ber of controversial provisions, the Bill lapsed. In 1990, the National Front Government introduced the 74th Constitutional Amendment Bill but due to the untimely dissolution of the Lok Sabha it could not, become an Act. In 1992, Mr. Narsimha Rao's Governm ent introduced another bill which became the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act, The new Amendment Act has set in motion a new phase of democratic decentralisation of admir istrative powers to the local self governing bodies. It is meant to delegate authority iu the elected members at the grass roots level. The basic thrust of the measure is that the elected local governments will hitherto be allowed to function in respect of their allotted areas of task.2 Accordingly, if Act 243 A.O. makes P.R.I.'s a constitutional body, having a fixed term Art. 243Z(D) provides for the constitution of a District Planning Committee (DPC) having specific functions to perform i.e. prepare the draft development plan for the whole district including both rural and urban areas. Since the DPC has found a significant place in our Constitution, the role of PRI's in decentralized planning has got significant importance. In view of involvem ent of PRI's in decentralised planning and rural development, I thought it proper to enquire into the select aspects of em erging dynamics of Panchayati Raj Institutions, in this study. The Conceptual Framework As far as conceptual framework is concerned, I adopted the concept of participative management for the present study. The success of the entire new legislative framework of PRI's depends on participation. This fact, impressed upon me, to adopt the concept of participative management for the present study. Hypothesis By looking into the objectives of the study, we find that the whole issue revolves around people's participation which is,

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