A Short Note on Panchayati Raj and Municipalities

Local Self Government is the management of local affairs by the natives of that area or their representatives, wherein the roles of Panchayati Raj and municipalities come into play, in which the former is concerned with the rural body whereas the latter is concerned with the urban body.

The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee was set up in 1957 to recommend the three-tier structure of the Panchayati Raj—village level, block level, and district level. 

The constitution also divides the urban governance of municipal institutions into three types in every municipality: municipal corporations or Nagar Nigams; municipalities or Nagarpalikas and Nagar Panchayats.

Let’s understand the roles of Panchayati Raj and municipalities in detail.

The Panchayati Raj Act

The Panchayati Raj came into force on April 24, 1993. The 73rd Amendment declared the three-tier system and also that the states with less than 20 lakh population are given an option not to constitute Panchayat at intermediate or block level.

• At the Village Level – Under the Act, two bodies have been set up at the village level – Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayat

Gram Sabha: It is the centre of local self government at the village level. It comprised all the registered voters in the Panchayat area. The Gram Sabha then elects their President, Gram Pradhan.

Functions of Gram Sabha –

1. To approve the budget for the year
2. To scrutinise the last year’s audit report
3. It looks after the activities regarding the village

Gram Panchayat:  It is the execute wing of Gram Sabha that makes sure all the objectives of the Sabha should be realised. Now, the Panchayat does not necessarily have five members, it depends upon the state population.

            Functions of Gram Panchayat –

1. To look after the civic facilities such as safe drinking water, health and sanitation etc.
2. To look after the welfare of education, women, youth and children.
3. To look after the developmental functions such as irrigation and rural housing.
4. To manage the regular administrative and judiciary functions.

• At the Block Level – The block or intermediate level governance is looked after by the Panchayat Samiti. At present, there are approximately 6000 Panchayat Samitis in our country

Panchayat Samiti – It is an intermediate body that coordinates all the activities and business of Village Panchayats. In Uttar Pradesh, these are referred to as ‘Kshetra Samiti’ while in Madhya Pradesh it is called ‘Janapada Panchayats’.

Functions of Panchayat Samiti –

1. To manage the regular developmental functions and civic facilities such as health programmes, water supply, agriculture and social welfare like Angadwadi.
2. To supervise the work of Gram Panchayats
3. To handle the delegated functions

• At the District Level – The apex body that governs the district level is called Zila Parishad that coordinates the activities of various Panchayat Samitis. In Assam, Zila Parishad is called ‘Mohkuma Parishad’

Functions of Zila Parishad –

1. To look after the civic and welfare functions such as maintenance of public properties.’
2. The Zila Parishad supervises the activities of Panchayat Samitis and the Gram Panchayats.
3. The Zila Parishad advises the State Government to look after the needy people in rural areas.
4. To undertake the developmental functions such as irrigation schemes and public distribution system.

 Limitations of Panchayati Raj

Unethical means such as money laundering and over power are adopted in the elections, lack of adequate financial resources and excessive official control and interference are some of the limitations.

The new legislation has brought some improvements into the roles of Panchayti Raj and municipalities which hope can be better towards Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women and children.

The Role of Municipalities

Now, before learning about municipalities, let’s first understand the structure of urban local self-government. The Municipal Corporation, or better known as Nagar Nigams, is an elected body that looks after the civic affairs of large cities such as Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Lucknow, etc., while municipalities, or nagarpalikas, are elected bodies that look after the civic affairs of small towns where the population is between 20,000 and 3 lakhs approximately.

The functions of municipalities are studied under two main heads: obligatory functions and discretionary functions.

• Obligatory Functions 

1. The municipality is responsible for maintaining hospitals and sanitation. It also looks after the quality food production and cleaning of public lanes.
2. The municipality is responsible for providing safe drinking water and electricity for domestic and commercial use.
3. The municipality establishes primary and secondary schools and also helps youngsters to create aptitude for sports and other activities.
4. The municipality is assigned for public work which includes construction of roads, community centres and halls.
5. The municipality also maintains an account of birth and deaths in cities.

• Discretionary Functions  

1. These activities include establishing libraries and reading rooms, construction of stadiums, organising exhibitions and fairs, transportation facilities etc.
2. They are responsible to organise employment schemes for weaker sections of the society and also a provision for housing and slum clearance programmes.

This concludes the roles of Panchayati Raj and municipalities. Now, let’s understand the difference between them.

Difference between Panchayati Raj and Municipality

The difference between panchayat raj and municipality is that the former is a process in which people participate in their own governance at the village level, whilst the latter is an urban local government that strives for the development of a city. Both of them are divided into three zones and carry out almost similar functions subjective to their area of governance.

Conclusion

So far, we have learnt that the local self-government looks after the grassroots of the country, which includes Panchayati Raj and Municipal Corporations. As explained above, the roles of Panchayati Raj and municipalities have been clearly defined by our Constitution. The structure of the two is based on the size of their governance and hence has been clearly outlined with their individual responsibilities. The only difference between Panchayati Raj and municipalities is that the former strives towards the development of rural bodies while the latter is for the urban.

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