Of the many ironies related to the issues of the governance in the State of J&K, the most significant one relates to the institutions of Panchayati Raj. Though every political party formally commits to the empowerment of Panchayats and Municipal bodies, and yet their institutionalisation remains the most elusive thing.
At the time when the State Panchayati Raj Act was passed in 1989, it was hailed as being quite progressive and ahead of other States in decentralising the process of governance. However, the Act remained in paper during the long years of militancy. So much so that even its rules could not be framed. In the meanwhile, the Central
Simply Stated
Rekha Chowdhary
Government had put in place the new concept of PRI and gave it constitutional sanctity through 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments. As per this new concept, the PRIs were to play three-fold role of providing firstly, the grass-root democracy through directly elected Panchayats at the three levels of Village, Block and Districts; secondly, adding Panchayats as third tier of federalism by constitutionally dividing powers between the States and the Panchayats and Municipalities as per the 11th and 12th Schedules of Indian Constitution; and thirdly, initiating a silent revolution of incorporating women and members of marginal sections of society into the formal elite structure by making a provision of reservation for these classes.
In the light of this new concept of Panchayati Raj institutions, a need was felt to re-look into the State Act, but however, there was no clarity about the purpose of these institutions. Over the period, some changes have been introduced in the Act. For instance, provision for reservation for one third seats for women, and for SCs and STs in proportion to their population at the level of Gram Panchayats was made in 2004. In 2011, provision was also made for constituting the State Election Commission and State Finance Commission. However, these changes were half-hearted measures and reflected the indifference of the successive State Governments towards the institutionalisation of these very significant institutions. While the block and the district level panchayats remained out of the purview of the principle of reservation; even at the village level Panchayats, the principle was applied only at the level of panches.. There was no effort for applying the principle for the elections of sarpanches. More curious has been the changes vis-a-vis the Election Commission and Finance Commission. It was in 2011, prior to the election of Panchayats that the State Government under the pressure of the Centre introduced these two offices. However, neither of the two offices have been made functional till date. As per the provisions related to the constitution of State finance Commission, it had to be appointed within one year of the election of the Panchayats. Four years have passed and this Commission has yet to be constituted. Similar has been the fate of autonomous and separate election commission for the Panchayats. It still has to see the light of the day.
To put the status of Panchayati Raj institutions of the State on record, one can clearly say that these institutions suffer on many accounts. Firstly, the very scheme of the Panchayati Raj institutions of the State is weak. There are structural problems in the 1989 Act and it neither caters to the idea of grass-root democracy nor does it fulfil the idea of federal division of powers between the State and the Panchayats. As far as the role of bringing about social revolution by bringing the marginal section to the centre of power structure – there is no such imagination in the Act.
The only point that caters to the principle of grass-root democracy is the direct election of the Gram Panchayat. Leaving this apart, the other provisions of the grass-root democracy at all the three layers are totally missing in the Act itself. For instance, there is no provision of direct election of Panchayats at the Block and the District level. At both these levels, the Act at best, presents a picture of bureaucratic rather than democratic structure of power. While at the Block level is at best is a half-hearted attempt at indirectly elected Panchayat, the democratic concept is totally missing at the district level. Even at the village level, what is missing is the emphasis on Gram Sabha or the Village Assembly.
As far as the concept of Panchayat as the third level of federalism, the 1989 Act is totally alien to it. Unlike the 73rd Amendment Act that acknowledges the federal principle and constitutionally divides the powers between the State and Panchayats, there is no such constitutional backing to the powers of Panchayats in this State. Since the 73rd Constitutional Amendment does not apply to this State, the Panchayati Raj institutions are governed only by the 1989 Act. The importance of the 73rd Amendment vis-a-vis the Panchayati Raj Institutions lies in the formal division of powers between the State and Panchayats and the exclusive powers of Panchayats (and Municipalities) being included in separate Schedules (11th and 12th Schedules of Indian Constitution). In the absence of the extension of the 73rd Amendment, there is no provision even within the State constitution which brings the Panchayats under the federal principle. Hence, the powers of the Panchayats are mentioned in the 1989 Act but these powers, as we have seen till now, have remained the powers in papers only. For the periods when the Panchayats are constituted, there is no automatic flow of power and no constitutional basis on which the elected panches and sarpanches can demand their exclusive’ powers. So every time the Panchayats are elected, there is an appeal to empower them and this demand continues throughout till the Panchayats are dissolved. Off and on, there is a pronouncement of the Government about its intention to empower the Panchayats and even formal orders are issued and yet these orders do not get translated in practice. (During the NC-Congress Government, 14 powers were said to be transferred to the Panchayats by more than one Governmental Order and at some point of time, there was even a pronouncement that 73rd Amendment had been implemented, and yet the Panchayats remained without real powers!)
Besides the structural deficiency of the Act, there is the problem of lack of political will towards the institutionalisation of the Panchayats. One fails to understand as to why when the Act clearly incorporates the principle of continuity of the Panchayats (it is clearly mentioned that not more than six months should pass between the dissolution of the Panchayat and the formation of the new ones), the existence of Panchayats (and Municipalities) remains at the will of the Government in power. As the record of the last three Governments show, each Government has been able to manage just one election – either of Panchayats or of Municipalities. Each Government has faulted on not initiating the process of formation of the institutions within six months of their being dissolved. Thus it was in 2001 that the Panchayat elections were organised by the NC Government. These Panchayats were dissolved in 2006 and no process was initiated by the incumbent Government of Congress-PDP to put these institutions in place. That is the reason that the next Panchayat election instead of mandatory five years, took place after ten years in 2011. Similarly the Municipal elections took place in 2005 and long after these were dissolved no effort has been made to hold elections and ten years have already passed since these were held last.
With the new Government in place, one can expect and rather demand that sufficient attention be paid not only in putting the Panchayats and Municipalities in place as per the existing Act but also to rethink the Act itself. With so much emphasis on governance, this Government cannot justify the indifference to Panchayats.
(Feedback welcome at
rekchowdhary@gmail.com)
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