Implementation of the Panchayati System in the last ten years has led to a real restructuring of the Indian polity. Give you views!

In 1993 Panchayati Raj system came into existence. Enshrined under Article 40 to organise village panchayats as the root level institutions is a Directive Principle of the State Policy (OPSP). The governance of the country changed a lot with the implementation of the Panchayati Raj System. It provides to constitute Gram Sabhas at village level. The Panchayati Raj institutions have started to work as units of democratic set up of our country.

They hold elections, do their administration collect and regulate financial systems of their own, make policies and implement them at the root level and thus train the people for the political system of the nation. Compared to the first forty three years of our freedom, reservation of seats even for women in regular elections have really created a great awareness. We couldn’t have taken the cooperation of villages and grass root level people in the governance except by the Panchayati Raj Systems. Yet there are some rigid problems which lie at the base of this system too, but these problems have not been able to cover the real-change brought about by the Panchayati Raj.

Panchayats have been given power to levy, collect and appropriate such taxes, duties, tolls and fees in accordance with the provisions made by the state government. The Panchayats have been given power and responsibility, to prepare and implement the plans for economic development and social justice in relation to the matters listed in the 11th schedule. It gave way to a common people participation in real polity rather than being a mere observer of the system after voting in the elections.

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