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DECENTRALISED GOVERNANCE IN INDIA :MYTH AND REALITY
BY SURAT SINGH
This book fills up the gap that continues to exist in the studies on the
Decentralized Governance despite the publication of a huge quantum of
literature. As many as 44 well-researched paper presented by distinguished
scholars from University and Research Institutions, leading activists working
in the NGOs and senior bureaucrats associated with the working of the rural
local self-government at a National Seminar on "Strategies for Strengthening
Panchayati Raj Institutions" organized by the Haryana Institute of Rural
Development, Nilokheri have been included in it.
This multi disciplinary and interdisciplinary exercise covers
almost all the states of India. It is a serious attempt to explode the myth of
decentralized rural governance and to present the ground realities. The authors
have not only diagnosed the disease from which it suffers but have also
recommended prescriptions for curing it. It is hoped that this comprehensive
volume will be of great utility for those policy-makers, administrators,
Panchayati Raj leaders, researchers, teachers, trainers and activists who are
interested in understanding and strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institutions
which constitute the base of Indian Political System.
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 This
book addresses the felt need of inter-generation equity criterion in terms of
the reduction of inter-regional, inter-gender, inter-social groups and
inter-personal disparities of the various economic political and social
dimensions of development
Strategies for Sustainable Rural Development is an ed. Volume containing wide
spectrum of quality research papers presented during the National Seminar
organized by HIRD, Nilokheri, during 14-15 March 2002. a total of thirty-three
research papers have been carefully edited and presented in this volume. For
convenience of the readers, this book has been divided into three parts, and
research contributions, thus, have been categorized under the given
contemporary relevance of themes and sub-themes, eg., Dimensions of
Sustainability; Rural Development and its Parameters; Rural Development
Development ; Population, Agriculture, Technology, Water Management; Employment
and Tourism; Rural Development : Case Study. It is a book that will be read
with keen interest to ponder upon the issues raised by distinguished writers.
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The focus of this study is to identify factors that promote development at the
micro level, so that lessons could be drawn for policy formulation. An attempt
has also been made to trace the changing political system in rural India which
can be observed in various types of changes such as, social, political and
economic.
A village in Haryana has been studied empirically to examine in
depth the various facets of the problem, role performance, development and
change. The examination enables the author to have a rounder grasp of the
nature of rural development and the leadership role.
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This
study discusses the concept of common land, how it was started and what was the
main purpose of having panchayat lands in the villages. Encroachment on common
land has made the Panchayats to depends on the govt. grants. Causes of
unauthorized occupation of panchayat lands exiting legal provision and their
implementation has also been examined. The present book has also suggested
measures for removing the illegal possession and tapping additional sources of
revenue. Issues of enhancing the finances of Panchayati Raj Institutions have
also been addressed.
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The basic aims of development of rural areas cannot be
achieved unless the Rural Development Administration extends wholehearted
support in the creation of various infrastructure facilities and provision of
extension services. The loop-holes in the Rural Development Administration that
have come to surface during the last one decade need to be plugged in the 21st
Century.
The functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions has not
improved to the desired extent even after getting a constitutional status. The
bureaucracy continues to dominate them. These institutions could not play an
effective role in delivery of goods and services to the villages due to lack of
clear demarcation of functions/responsibilities and powers, and sufficient
funds. An essential requirement for successful economic reforms is that
resources must move from old inefficient activities to new promising
activities.
This raises some pertinent questions:
I. Are the existing concepts, assumptions and values of
the theory and practice of development administration, which emerged in the
post-colonial phase, still relevant in the 21st century?
II. Should we not take into consideration various
indigenously developed alternatives that are more suited for ensuring human
dignity?
III.
Could not these be geared to the needs of human centred sustainable
rural development?
This book gives suitable answers to these questions
through fruitful discussions on various facets of rural development
administration.
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REFORMS, RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE HUMAN FACE
Perspectives,
Perceptions, Prescriptions
(S. KAUSHIL & SURAT SINGH)
There has always been an on-going debate on the
necessity or otherwise of the State Sector as an entrepreneur and as a welfareprovisioning
agency responsible for ensuring adequate availability and equitable
distribution of basic social-public goods, services and utilities, of housing
and shelter, of general and technical education, or primary and specialized
healthcare, of sanitation and hygiene, of roads and transport, of safe drinking
water, of irrigation, of power, and the like, all of which go as crucial inputs
into defining, variously, the general living conditions, physical quality of
life, human development, and similar other indicators and indexes of
development as perceived under the new paradigm.
The winning view in this
debate has been the one favouring the need for curtailing the State Public
Sector's role and replacing it by the liberalized Market-Governed regime as a
necessary precondition for development as now perceived, especially in the
Third World countries. This alternative is being prescribed and peddled, and
accepted too, as a panacea for all their socio-economic maladies.
This book brings together
contributions of eminent thinkers, scholars and practitioners from all over the
country, who have, through their analytical deliberations, amply and ably
elaborated upon the various sub-scenarios and facets of India's experience in
the pre and post-reform period and generated an evaluative profile and
perspective which, expectedly, would be helpful and useful for academics,
administrators and activists alike in their respective domains of concern
pertaining to reforms, rural development, social and human development.
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Local Democracy
and
Good Governance
Five Decades of Panchayati Raj
(Ranbir Singh and Surat Singh)
The term local democracy used in this study for
the Panchayati Raj Institutions which have assumed enhanced salience
after the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment
(1992). The processes of Liberalization, Privatization and
Globalization initiated, as a result of adoption of the New Economic
Policy in 1991 in India have added to their importance. This study
is a modest attempt to evaluate the working of Panchayati Raj
Institutions, since their inception in 1959, during the five
decades.
The Contents of this book include: The
Theme Papers: “Democratic Decentralization and Good Governance,
Retrospect and Prospect”; “Democratic Decentralization and Good
Governance: The Theoretical Perspective’; “The Dialectics of
Democratic Decentralization and Good Governance"; "The Conceptual
and Substantive Issues of Democratic Decentralization" and
"Democratic Decentralization and Good Governance: The Challenge
before the Social Scientists”. The Special Papers:
“Democratic Decentralization: The Deficit of Politics”; “Good
Governance or Self-Governance? Prospects of Economic Revitalization
of Panchayats in Post-1991 LPG India’; “Grassroots Governance in a
Tribal Area of Chhattisgarh’; “Empowerment of Panchayati Raj
Institutions’; “Local Governance and Equity in Public Service
Delivery: A Study of the Gram Panchayats in Haryana”; “Democratic
Decentralization and Good Governance: The need for Realistic
Empowerment of Panchayats"; "Democratic Decentralization and Good
Governance in India: Promises and Perils”; “Impact of Globalization
on Good Governance and the Need for Democratic Decentralization”;
“Democratic Decentralization, Good Governance and Human Governance:
A Conceptual Analysis” and “The RTI and Good Governance at Local
Level”. The Conceptual and Operational Dimensions: “The
Concept of Democratic Decentralization”; “The Evolution of Concept
of Panchayati Raj: From Democratic Decentralization to Good
Governance”; “S.K. Dey’s Paradigm of Democratic Decentralization”;
“The Paradox of Political Decentralization and Economic
Centralization’; “Decentralization and Good Governance: Some Issues
and Challenges at the Third Tier of Governance” and “Some Steps for
Good Governance through Democratic Decentralization”. Experiences
of Democratic Decentralization in States: “Structure and Working
of Panchayati Raj in Kerala”; “Working of Panchayat Raj
Institutions at Grassroots Level: Experiences from the State of
Madhya Pradesh”; “Punjab’s Economy and Panchayati Raj Institutions:
An Analysis”; “Major Trends in the Panchayati Raj System of Himachal
Pradesh” and “Structural and Functional Dimensions of Panchayati Raj
in Haryana”. Democratic Decentralization and Women Empowerment:
“Genesis and Development of Women Empowerment in India”; “Women
Empowerment, the National Perspective”; “Women Empowerment in the
Panchayati Raj Institution of Uttarakhand after the 73rd
Constructional Amendment Act” and “Empowerment of Women in the PRIs
of Haryana”. |
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