While empires rose and fell, in India, village panchayats, which formed an integral part of the national life; helped to preserve democratic traditions in social, cultural, economic and political life. The Panchayats have /had survived the onslaught of centuries of political upheavals and saved Indian society from disintegration. There are reasons to believe that one of the earliest civilizations with self-governance was found in ancient India as early as that of the Rigveda. The village was the basic unit of administration in the Vedic age.
India has a long history of governments by discussion, in which groups of people, sharing common interests made decisions on matters that affected their lives through debate, consultation and voting. The inscriptions, dating back to 750 A.D, document the prevalence of a written constitution which prescribes elections to the village assembly, qualifications required of contesting candidates, terms of the village mode of election, tenure of office, and the electorate’s right to recall members etc. In ancient India, the village assembly had policy making and judicial functions, and it was empowered to levy and collect fines from both criminals and errant village administrators.
Presently, the Gram Sabha is required to consider the following matters and make recommendations and suggestions to the Gram Panchayats:
i) The annual statement of accounts of the Gram Panchayat, the report of administration of the preceding financial year and the last audit report; ii) the report in respect of development programs of the Gram Panchayat relating to the preceding year and the development programs proposed to be undertaken during the current financial year; iii) the programs of adult education and family welfare; and iv) proposal of new taxation or enhancement of existing taxes.
The Gram Sabha is to perform the following functions; i) Identification of beneficiaries for poverty alleviation programs. ii) mobilization of public contribution in cash/kind or labor for implementation of community welfare schemes. iii) Promotion of social harmony among all sections of the people in the village; and iv) rendering assistance in the implementation of development schemes in its area.
The new paradigm of rural development based on micro planning is to empower individuals at the grass roots level with the goal of shifting from a provider-beneficiary approach to development of a partnership approach. This will enable local communities and development functionaries to work together in planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes at the grass-roots level.
Micro-planning process begins at the Gram Panchayat level and all items which can be executed by the Gram Panchayat (GP) or within the jurisdiction of a GP will form the GP plan. All other items which cover more than one GP and Panchayat Sabha level will provide PS Resource Inventory. (PSRI). While formulating Gram Panchayat Plan (GPP) it needs to be kept in mind that since all the projects/schemes cannot be taken-up in the same year and the same time, these should be prioritised according to urgency and importance. After consultation with Gram Sabha, prepare a 5-year perspective plan as well as an Annual Action Plan.