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Point out the main significance of Democratic

Decentralization in India?
The system of democratic decentralization came into
limelight by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional
Amendments (1993) in order to provide the authority
for self governance to the villages. The 73rd Amendment
gives village, block and district level bodies a
constitutional status under Indian Law. The more
important features of the amendment are summarized
below;
i. The establishment of a 3 tier Panchayat Raj
Institution (PRI), with elected bodies at village,
block and district level [States with population less
than 2 Mill are not required to introduce block level
Panchayat].
ii. Direct elections to 5 year terms for all members at
all levels.
iii.Reservation of 1/3 of the seats for women and for
backward classes.
iv.A state election commission will be created to
supervise, organize and oversee Panchayat
elections at all level.
A State Finance Commission will be established to
review and revise the financial position of the
Panchayats on 5 year intervals and to make
recommendations to the State Governments about the
distribution of Panchayat funds. At the village level the
Gram Panchayat area is meant to serve as a principle
mechanism for transparency and accountability.
According to S N Jha; “The 73rd and 74th amendments
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are designed to promote self-governance through
statutory recognition of local bodies. The latter are
expected to move away from their traditional role of
simply executing the programs handed down to them
by the higher levels of government” (Decentralization
and Local Politics_ Pg-103).
It would be proper to assess the significance of
Democratic Decentralization in India by analyzing the
level of progress made by the initiative. Using the
conventional classification of political, administrative
and fiscal decentralization, the World Bank’s three
Volume study of Indian Decentralization (World Bank;
2000A, 2000B, 2000C) ranks India among the best
Performers internationally in terms of Political
decentralization but close to the last in terms in terms
of administrative decentralization. Most of the states
have held at least one round of elections since 1993. In
its study of 53 villages in Rajasthan and Madhya
Pradesh for instance, the World Bank () found out that
voter turnout for Panchayat elections was well over
90% for all categories in term of Gender, caste and
class. This was significantly higher than the turn out for
the 1998 Lokh Sabha elections which was 61% for
women and 65.9% for men. (Y Yadhav_ India’s Third
Electoral System/Weekly). In its assessment of the
Indian Decentralization the task force on the devolution
of powers and functions upon Panchayati Raj
institutions (Ministry of Rural Development_ 2001-
Source Wiekimedia) found that most of the states had
satisfied only the basic requirements relating to the
transfer of function, functionaries, funds and financial
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autonomy to the Panchayats. Vyasulu finds that the
state government has devolved little finances and
fiscal powers to the Panchayats. Instead, many have
established parallel bodies as a channel for
development funding. Self help groups connected to
the Janmabhoomi programme in Andhra Pradesh and
the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Missions in Madhya
Pradesh are two illustrations in this trend. M A:
Oommen’s Panchayat Finance and Issues (1999_ Pg-
157) concludes that the conformity acts have generally
been an exercise in amending existing Panchayat
legislation for the sake of satisfying the mandatory
provisions of the 73rd Amendment. He raises the
following concern;
i. Village Panchayats have been delegated functions
without proper administrative and financial
support.
ii. With the exception of Kerala and West Bengal,
Panchayats lack discretionary powers over
spending and staff.
iii.States reserve the rights to assign or withdraw
functions to and from the Panchayats by ‘Executive
Fiat’.
iv.Panchayats lack autonomous budgeting powers.
Still much work needs to be done including the removal
of corruption to make more effective, the
decentralization initiative, which has shown a
respectable level of progress, especially in the states of
West Bengal and Kerala.

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