Panchayati Raj of Gujarat
State villages have always been assigned importance in our social as well as economic activities. Since, ancient times ‘Gram’ remain stand as a unit. At present, majority of countries population living in rural areas. Mahatma Gandhi, described village as a unit for gram swaraj. Gram swaraj means, totally independent from neighbors for one’s own great desires, but it is reliable each other as dependent republic. Panchayati Raj has come into existence as an important measure in the direction of decentralization from the very beginning in Gujarat state. Panchayati Raj is being implemented in Gujarat with unambiguous policy and intention to see that community at large may participate in strengthening panchayati raj and in the development journey of government. Gujarat Panchayat Act 1993, is in force in Gujarat state subject to the 73rd amendment in the constitution of India. By this act, the management and monitoring of the panchayati Raj is to be done in the state.
Three tier system prevails in Gujarat state viz.
- Gram Panchayat
- Taluka Panchayat
- District Panchayat
There are 33 district panchayat, 247 taluka panchayats, and 14,017 gram panchayats in Gujarat state, while revenue villages are 18,584.
An outline of functions
Functions of three-tire panchayat structure in Gujarat state are distributed as under:
Gram panchayat
- Drinking water facilities for domestic use and for animals.
- Scavenging of roads in the villages.
- Maintenance of govt. properties
- Lighting arrangement in villages
- Spread of education including primary education in villages.
- Planning of rural development
- Supervision of crops in the outskirt of village.
- Planning for agricultural improvements
- Planning for Agricultural Reforms.
Taluka Panchayat
- Provide health and hygiene services in talukas
- Control on epidemics Constructions and maintenance of village roads.
- Establishment and management of primary school
District Panchayat
Control over activities of district panchayats, taluka panchayats and gram panchats, to provide assistance. Management and control on activities transferred from revenue, education co-operation Irrigation, Cattle breeding, agriculture by State Govt. work of activities of Panchayats Department at district level.
Participation of panchayatati Raj non-governmental organization in Gujarat
Word ‘panchayat’ may be divided in turns parts viz. panch and ayat, word panch is used for number of five in Sunskrit as well as Gujarati language. There is a popular vox ‘dei’ and people have unit since ‘Vedic Period’ also. It is believed that king Pruthu introduced panchayat system at the time of people habitation between ganga and jamuna rivers. Half-hearted efforts were made to establish panchayata during British rule. Royal commission appointed for decentralization in 1907 stated in his report that formerly villages enjoyed great customary. During national movement, gram panchayats and leaders invited local self-government and expressed openings that local self – governments should be elected up to apex level and government should take early measures to support them with sufficient funds. With the implementation of recommendations on democratic decentralization or Panchayati Raj by Balvantray Mehta study group, panchayati raj began in Gujarat state. Then after recommendations by various committees at regular intervals made Panchayati Raj more succesfully implemented. After 73rd amendment in the constitution of India, Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1993 came into existence, in which three tier panchayat raj system was constituted in Gujarat State.
Development Machinery
After implementing panchayati raj in Gujarat and that too after implementation of democratic decentralization basically efforts were made to establish panchayati raj as an important means for rural development, to strengthen and empower panchayati raj. Machinery involved in rural development program is known as developmental administration. Necessary structural organization and attitude are mentioned as implementation of development administrative scheme and social and economic charge program undertaken by government.