Government is files and governance is life: a pithy statement to highlight the fact that there is a need for a humane approach when handling the problems of the people. When we visit a government office we see files heaped all over, with some staff poring over files and many empty chairs with staff absent or out on errands. All seem to be busy but there is a huge backlog of work and people's grievances remain unattended to.Ours is a welfare state and the directive principles of state policy emphasise that policy framers take up governance to achieve an egalitarian society where everyone's aspirations are truly fulfilled.
In the classical Sanskrit work Kalidasa, Raghuvamsa describes the greatness of King Dilipa and defines the welfare state. “It was only for the welfare of people the king took taxes from them, just like the sun which takes moisture from the earth only to return it thousandfold in the form of beneficient rain.” In essence, if a state takes even one rupee from the people it should return a hundred rupees to them in the form of benefits.
In a welfare state that should multiply phenomenally to several crores of rupees when it actually reaches the people. A well constructed road, a bridge across a waterway, how it catalyses economic activity for easy transport of goods and services! This is made possible only through administrative efficiency proceeding from competence, social awareness and more importantly the character of the administrators.
The smallest administrative unit of the government is the village administrative officer or the patwari who maintains the land records of the village. He is responsible for keeping government land free from encroachment, taking care of the trees and vegetation in public areas, auctioning the produce. He should also keep an account of the farming activity, take stock of losses during natural calamities to recommend compensation if any, register birth and deaths, issue identification for the issue of ration cards that allow people to avail benefits from the public distribution system. He processes the issue of community certificates and other verification certificates to the residents of the village. In effect he is a mini government by himself. He is the basic unit of the Revenue Department, reporting to the Revenue Inspector who in turn works under the Tahsildar in charge of a tahsil under a revenue division headed by the Revenue Divisional Officer or Assistant District Magistrate. Two or more such Revenue divisions constitute a district headed by the District Collector overseeing the whole gamut of governance in a district.
All welfare work and government schemes are implemented through the Collector of the district, who is also responsible for maintenance of law and order with the help of the police under the Superintendent of Police. Collectors of districts in each State collectively report to the Chief Secretary of the State who in turn acts on the policies framed by the elected government headed by the Chief Minister. There are secretaries to government in charge of various departments like Agriculture, Revenue, Health, Public Works, Education and Home and these secretaries report to the Chief Secretary.
This is the steel frame of administration that runs the day to day business of the government. The head of each State is the Governor who is appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of the Central government.The Collector of a District has a revenue function of land adminstration in the district and a development function. The development function is carried out through subdivided blocks in each revenue division coming under a district development officer reporting to the Collector. Mahatma Gandhi, who believed that the soul of India was in its villages, envisaged a decentralised system of governance from the grass-root level. The basic unit is the gram panchayat where people join together towards village development.
The Constitutional (73rd Amendment) Act, passed in 1992, came into force on April 24, 1993. It was meant to provide constitutional sanction to establish “democracy at the grass-root level as it is at the State level or National level”. This unique model has been formalised under the Panchayat Raj system (rule by village committee), a three-tier system with elected bodies at the village, taluk and district levels. This system is based on detailed research by the Balwant Rai Mehta committee in 1957, the GVK Rao Committee in 1985, and later the L M Singhvi Committee in 1986. The result was intended to create greater participation in local government by people and more effective implementation of rural development programmes.
All seats in the panchayat at every level are to be filled by elections to be held once in five years from the respective demarcated constituencies. The elections are conducted by the State Election Commission constituted under the Act. Another unique feature is the reservation of one third of the total seats for membership as well as for the office of chairpersons at each level — panchayat, taluk and district — for women candidates. In addition, reservation for Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes is provided in proportion to their population.
Panchayats are expected to play an effective role in the implementation of 29 schemes listed in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution.
It is indeed gratifying that there are thirty lakh elected representatives with a sizeable number of women members who represent about 2.4 lakh village panchayats. These panchayats cover about 96% of nearly 6.3 lakh villages in the country. This is the largest decentralisation of governance in the annals of history. A vibrant democratic revolution of which we can be truly proud.