Similar to the socio-economic component, the politico-administrative component of decentralized development is also significant. To realise the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, the state governments should implement the politico-administrative provisions of the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts. These Acts have given greater responsibility on the panchayat and the urban local bodies for development of the villages and cities of our country.
Accountability
Accountability in the panchayat and the urban local bodies is a precondition for creating trust in the minds of people so that the abuse of power and misuse of public resources is prevented. This accountability should be on a day-to-day basis and not just once in five years when they go to seek votes. Keeping the accountability principle in view, all the states have made provisions for the financial audit. In the state of Kerala, the monitoring sanities have been formed for supervising various development workds and to report to Gram Sabha about their findings. In Madhya Pradesh, the panchayats have to display the details of works undertaken by them.
Representation to MLAs and MPs in Local Bodies
In most of the states like Assam, Andhra, Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa, MLAs and MPs are members of intermediate (block) panchayats and Zila Parishads and they also have voting rights in the meetings of the concerned panchayats. States like Kerala, Maharashtra and Rajasthan do not provide representation to MLAs and MPs in the intermediate and Zila Panchyats while Tamil Nadu provides representation only in Zila Panchayats. The provision of representation and voting right to MLAs and MPs in panchayats as ex-officio members has been questioned that it would lead to over domination of panchayats by them.
Role of Bureaucracy
The functioning of panchayats and urban local bodies depend functional relationship in terms of coordination and cooperation between the elected and official functionaries. But the functioning of he panchayats and the urban local bodies indicate disturbing trends from state-to-state because of varying functional relational relationship between the elected and official functionaries.
The district collector in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat has not been given any direct responsibility for achieving coordination between district administration and state administration. But in Punjab, bureaucracy has been given real powers of control and supervision of these institutions thereby establishing an offer rather than a people Raj.
The experiences from various states makes it clear that the state act have governments, through bureaucracy, to exercise control, supervision, powers of dissolution and of annulling resolutions. Such provisions create confrontation between he district panchayat leadership and administrative leadership, mainly du to the absence of a clear cut demarcation of power and functions between panchayats functionaries.
Role of District Rural Development Agency
The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) was the principal organ at the district level to oversee the implementation of different rural development programmers. In 1996, the central government recommended the merger of DEDA with PRIs or to put DRDA under the control of PRIs but except for some states, DRDA still has an independent status.
In Andhra Pradesh DRDA has its own programmes of rural development that is separate from Zila Parishad action plan. Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka merged DRDA in Zila Parishad. In Kerala, DRDA was merged with district panchayats though project director is responsible for distribution of funds of District panchayats. Thus, it becomes clear that various state governments, home taken measures fo merging the DRDA with Zila Parishad in order to provide effective control of Zila Parishad over DRDA.
The District Planning Committee
The constitutional status of the District Planning Committee (DPCs) has been provided under 243z (d) through 74th Amendment Act. These DPCs have been given power to prepare a draft development plan for the district by integrating the plans prepared by the panchayats and the municipalities. According to the Article 243z (2) I, the state legislature is empowered to assign functions to the DPC. However, most of the states have not mentioned any specific functions in the respective panchayat Acts except a few states such as Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala have mentioned the DPC’s roles and functions.
The DPCs in various states are functioning with certain shortcomings. It has been observed that though the PDC has to look into he preparation of district plan based on the local needs but the chairperson of DPC is not an elected member from panchayats or municipalities in majority of the states. Moreover, the DPC does not have sufficient expertise to make analysis for reaching rational decision-making despite the fact that the planning requires specialized knowledge and skills. Finally, no planning committees exists at the block or Gram Panchayat level for carrying out local level planning and provide essential inputs to DPC on local needs.
Accountability is a key instrument for politico-administrative component of decentralization to prevent the abuse of power and misuse of public resources which brint trust and confidence in the minds of people. the panchayats and the urban local bodies can be successful if proper system of accountability is provided and the citizens expect their representatives to be responsive to their needs and wisehs. The accountability of respresentatives should be on a day-to-day basis.
Keeping the accountability issue in mind, all the states have made provisions for the financial audit. The monitoring samitis have been formed in Kerala for supervising various development workds and to report to Gram Sabha about their findings. The Kerala Panchayat Act has also clearly recognized accountability principle which allows the citizens to demand answers from the panchayats for their actions.
In Madhya Pradesh, the panchayats have to display the details of works undertaken by them to the villagers and the villagers can take the certified copy of any document by paying nominal fees. The members of the Gram Sabha can also raise issues and ask questions from elected members during the meeting of social audit. The Majdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in Rajasthan organized popular movements and demanded information from the panchayats about he quantum of public fund and the manner in which it was spent.
The aforesaid instances clearly indicate the quite enough provision has been made in the Constitution Amendment Acts to ensure accountability of the representatives to the citizens. In order to implement these provisions, people and social organizations should be vigilant and ask questions to members of panchayats and the urban local bodies about their decisions if there is a genuine need. Thus, Right to Information is a welcome step in the direction of maintaining transparency in the functioning of local bodies.
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