Gram Panchayat

PANCHAYATI RAJ SYSTEM

As we have seen earlier that in the past, Panchayats used to

be the seat of justice. Local disputes and other problems
were referred to Panchayats and their decisions used to be
respected by one and all. Our national leaders like Mahatma
Gandhi had a firm faith in this system. The Constitution
makers also considered this system to be very important
and made provisions for it in the Directive Principles of State
Policy.
The Constitution states that the State shall take steps to
organize Village Panchayats and empower them with such
powers and authorities as may be necessary to enable them
to function as units of local self government.
 As a follow up, the present day Panchayats
began functioning under the Community
Development Programme introduced during the
first Five year Plan. To make the system more
effective a Committee was formed under the
Chairmanship of Balwant Rai Mehta that went into
its details. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee in
its report submitted in 1957 recommended the
establishment of a three-tier Panchayati Raj
System: Gram Panchayats at the village level, the
Panchayat Samitis at the block level or
intermediate level and the Zila Parishad at the
district level.
 In 1958, the National Development Council
also recommended a similar structure of local
government where village was at the bottom of
the system and district at the top. However, it is
the 73rd Constitutional Amendment 1992 that
provided the present shape to the Panchayati
Raj System. Now the Panchayati Raj Institutions
in most of the States have been set up at three
levels, village, intermediate and district levels.
But in smaller States having a population of less
than 25 lakh, there are only two tiers, the village
level and the district level.
 The 73rd Constitutional Amendment 1992
The passage of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 marks
a new era in the federal democratic set up of the country and provides
constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The main
features of the Act are:

(i) establishment of a three-tier structure: Village Panchayat (Gram

Panchayat); intermediate panchayat (Panchayat Samiti; and the district
panchayat (Zila Parishad);
(ii) regular elections, every five years;
(iii) reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in
proportion to their population;
(iv) not less than one-third reservation of seats for women at three different
levels of PRIs;
(v) establishment of State Finance Commissions to recommend measures to
improve the finances of panchayats;
(vi) establishment of State Election Commissions to conduct election to the
PRIs;
(vii) establishment of District Planning Committees to prepare development
plans for the districts;
(viii) preparation of plans for economic development and social justice and
their execution concerning 29 subjects listed in the 11th Schedule of the
Constitution;
(ix) establishment of Grama Sabha (village assemblies) and their
empowerment as a decision making body at the village level; and
(x) rotation in accordance with the reservation of seats for women and the
Scheduled Castes in the PRIs.

By the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, the Panchayati Raj

Institutions have been given such powers and authority as may be
necessary to enable them to function. It contains provisions for
devolution of powers and responsibilities related to (a) the preparation
of plans for economic development and social justice; and (b) the
implementation of such schemes for economic development and social
 In India there are 660 Zilla Parishads,
7198 Panchayat Samitis, and 255812
(approximately 256000) Gram Panchayat local
bodies, look after the basic amenities and
development works.
Whos who
• The Rural Development Department of
Government, Maharashtra works for the overall
development of rural regions in the state. The
department works towards providing complete
facilities to the people of villages. Its objectives are
to provide clean, beautiful, and green villages,
run a poverty eradication program through the
Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission
and provide shelter and shelter facilities under the
Indira Awas Yojana/ Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana.
• Through this department, various welfare
schemes, programs for the development of rural
areas, and for the citizens are implemented.
Developmental works were also implemented
through Local Government Institutions like
District Council, Panchayat Samiti, and
Grampanchayat. The goal of this department is
to implement creative, comprehensive, and
sustainable rural development through a strong
Panchayatraj system.
Structure of Rural Development Department
• At the Ministry level, RDD Minister along with MoS for
RDD look after the work of the Rural Development
Department. However, the Additional Chief Secretary
looks after the administrative head of this
department. There are three such organizations in the
State Management Cell (Rural Housing Development),
State Administration Cell (Maharashtra State Rural
Livelihoods Campaign), State Management Room
(Panchayatiraj) for Rural Development Department.
Deputy commissioners (development) in the offices of
the divisional commissioners of Konkan, Pune, Nashik,
Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur in the state and
Deputy Commissioner (Establishment).
• In addition, the elected representative and
administrative machinery in the Zilla Parishad, 34
Zilla Parishads, 351 Panchayat Samitis, and 27879
(approximately 28,000) Gram Panchayat local
bodies, look after the basic amenities and
development works.

• The Chief Executive Officer works at the district

level i.e Zilla Parishad; Block Development
Officers (BDOs) work at Taluka level
and Gramsevak officers work at the Gram
Panchayat level.
District Council of the State

• Konkan Division- Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri,

Sindhudurg
• Nashik Division – Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon,
Ahmednagar
• Pune Division – Pune, Satara, Kolhapur, Sangli, Solapur
• Aurangabad Division- Aurangabad, Jalna, Osmanabad,
Beed, Latur, Nanded, Parbhani, Hingoli
• Amravati Division- Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Washim,
Yavatmal
• Nagpur Division – Nagpur, Bhandara, Gondia,
Chandrapur, Wardha, Gadchiroli
 UNIT -3 Gram Panchayat

• 3.1 Composition, functions and resources

• 3.2 Sarpanch and Gram Sevak
• 3.3 Gram Sabha and Social Audit
Composition and Functions-
Village Panchayat also called Gram Panchayat is the grass root institution
of Panchayati Raj System. At village level there is a Gram Sabha or Village
Assembly and a Gram Panchayat having a Chairperson known as Gram
Pradhan or Sarpanch (Mukhia), a Vice Chairperson and some Panches.
In fact, the Village Panchayats are organized and they function according
to the Act passed by every State Government. That is why, you may find
variations in different States. But mostly, the Panchayati Raj Institutions are
organized and they function as follows:

A Gram Sabha or Village Assembly consists of all the adults voters

(persons above the age of 18 years) living in the area of a Gram Panchayat i.e.
village or a group of small villages. The Gram Sabha has now been recognized
as a legal body.
"village" and "a group of villages" means the village or, as the case may
be, a group of villages specified in the notification issued under clause (g) of
article 243 of the Constitution of India
 It acts like the legislative body. In one year at
least two meetings of the Gram Sabha are held. In its
first meeting the Gram Sabha considers the budget of
the Gram Panchayat. In its second meeting it considers
the reports of the Gram Panchayat. The main functions
of Gram Sabha are to review the annual accounts of
Panchayat, discuss audit and administrative reports
and the tax proposals of its Panchayat and accept
community service, voluntary labour and schemes for
Panchayat.
The members of Gram Sabha elect the members
and also the Chairperson of Gram Panchayat. The
States have to ensure that all the Gram Sabhas in their
respective areas are functional.
 The Village Panchayat or Gram Panchayat is
the executive committee of Gram Sabha. It is the
most important unit of rural local self-government.
As we have seen, all the members of each Gram
Sabha are voters who elect the members of the
Panchayat by a secret ballot. In most of the States, a
Village Panchayat has 7 to 17 members who are
called Panches.
In every Panchayat, one-third of the seats are
reserved for women. However, there are States
where the percentage of seats reserved for women
is even more. Seats are also reserved for persons
belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Sr.No. Population Members

1 0-1500 7
2 1501-3000 9
3 3001-4500 11
4 4501-6000 13
5 6001-7500 15
6 7501 and above 17
 The Sarpanch (Mukhia) of the Panchayat is
directly elected by all the voters of the village.
Some offices of Sarpanches are now reserved for
women, and some for persons belonging to
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Sarpanch calls the meetings of the Panchayat and
presides over those meetings. He/She is to call
at least one meeting of the Panchayat per
month. The Panches can also request him/her for
calling a special meeting. He/She has to call such
special meeting within three days of the request.
• Sarpanch keeps the records of the meetings of
Panchayat. The Panchayat can assign any special
function to him/ her. A Vice Chairperson is
elected by the members of the Panchayat. The
tenure of the Village Panchayat is of 5 years.
Gramsevak
The zila parishad appoints to the gramsevak. Gramsevak
to carry out the ruiteen work of the grampanchayat. The
records and accounts maintains of the grampanchayat the
minutes of the meetings of the grampanchayat.
• Gramsevak is a secretary of grampanchayat and he is
administrative head too.
• He is also the registrar who has to maintain the records of
birth, death and marriage in gram panchayat jurisdiction.
• He is class-III servant of gram development department of
Zila Padishad.
• Gram sevak is selected through the selection of committee
and his appoints, training, promotion, rights are in the
hand of Chief Executive Officer of ZP.
• He is working anti- child marriage officer on
gram level.
• He collects the water, house and light revenue.
• He has to write the minutes of meetings of gram
panchayat.
• He is responsible for utilisation of functions for
various activities of the grampanchayat.
• He has to prepare, present and submit the
financial records of grampanchayat to the
panchayat samiti and ZP.
• Gramsevak is a middle-man beetween the ZP
and panchayat samiti and grampanchayat.
Functions of Gram Panchayats-

All the major functions of Gram Panchayat are

related to the welfare and development of the village.
With a view to fulfill the needs and requirements of
the villagers every Gram Panchayat has to perform
some important functions such as provision of safe
drinking water, paving of streets, developing and
maintaining good drainage system, ensuring
cleanliness of the village, upkeep of street lights,
dispensary, etc. These functions are known as
obligatory functions.
• Some other functions are discretionary and can
be performed, if the Panchayat has the
resources and funds. These are plantation of
trees, setting up and maintenance of
insemination centre for cattle, developing and
maintaining play ground for sports and setting
up and running the library.
 From time to time some other functions
can be assigned to Panchayats by the State
government or Union government. But along
with these functions of Panchayats, every
member of the village also has the duty
towards his/ her village. One should keep the
surroundings of his /her home clean, not
waste drinking water and plant more and
more trees.
Sources of Income of Gram Panchayats
Financial resources are essential for performance of the
functions by Panchayats, whether these are obligatory functions
or developmental work. Gram Panchayats can work better, if they
have adequate funds to spend. Over and above the Grants-in aid,
State governments have empowered Panchayats to levy taxes and
collect funds.
Some of the sources are as follows:
1. taxes on property, land, goods and cattle;
2. rent collected for facilities like Barat Ghar or any other property of
panchayat;
3. various types of fines collected from the offenders;
4. grants-in- aid from the State government and Union government;
5. a part of the land revenue collected by the State government
given to the Panchayats; and
6. donations collected from the villagers for some common cause.
• Social audit by the gram sabha, where non-
panchayat members can be authorised to look into
the panchayat accounts and record their signatures
following scrutiny done, is another landmark
inclusion. The word `audit’ (latin) in essence means
`to hear’ where ancient Roman emperors employed
auditors to obtain feedback about their kingdoms.
The auditors visited public places to listen to
citizens’ opinions about administrative matters,
incidence of tax and integrity of local officials. The
modern day audit has moved beyond this ancient
concept and is an independent evaluation of
activities and programmes being implemented by an
• Government auditing in India has primarily been
expenditure oriented—but social audit is more
comprehensive. Pioneered in 1972 by the British scholar
Charles Medawar the concept of social audit began with
the application of the idea to medicine policy, drug
safety issues and on matters of corporate, governmental
and professional accountability. According to Medawar,
the concept of social audit is rooted in the principle that
in democracy decision makers should account for the
use of their power; and use their power with the
consent and understanding of all concerned. Thus, social
audit is an independent evaluation of the performance
of an organisation and examines the extent to which it
has met its social obligation.
• Social audit uses a perspective wherein an
administrative system is evaluated based on what it
has achieved for the vast majority of people in whose
name and for whose because it has been promoted
and legitimised. It seeks to understand the internal
dynamics of a system from the viewpoint of the
common man who is not essentially a part of the state
machinery or the ruling class. It involves sensitising
target groups about the benefits of any programme
and identifying gaps in its implementation; scrutiny of
the organisational structure and policy evolution for
the people keeping in mind their interests, priorities
and perceptions; and making the system open and
accountable to the people. Access to information is
the key to social audit.
 Today the panchayat provides the best fora to
implement social audit, and the gram sabha is the best
social audit unit in our democratic structure. Since public
spirited citizens and their collectivity forms the key to
social audit, members of the gram sabha, all sections of
the representative bodies—gram panchayat, panchayat
samiti and zilla parishad and their representatives can raise
issues of social concern and public interest. Retired
persons, teachers or others with impeccable integrity,
could constitute a monthly social audit forum or a social
audit committee wherein problems may be identified and
solutions suggested. Based on these deliberations, monthly
action reports can be prepared highlighting the action to
be taken by respective departments. This can go a long
way in creating an understanding that one cannot cheat
the gram sabha.