{"id":52072,"date":"2019-09-11T14:26:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T08:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=52072"},"modified":"2019-09-11T14:26:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T08:56:55","slug":"answered-local-governments-still-remain-hamstrung-and-ineffective-after-decades-of-73rd-and-74th-constitutional-amendments-discuss","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-local-governments-still-remain-hamstrung-and-ineffective-after-decades-of-73rd-and-74th-constitutional-amendments-discuss\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] \u201cLocal governments still remain hamstrung and ineffective after decades of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments.\u201d Discuss."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Demand of the question<\/strong>
Introduction.<\/strong> Contextual Introduction.
Body. <\/strong>Various inefficiencies in local government. How to plug theses inefficiencies?
Conclusion. <\/strong>Way forward. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Decentralized democratic governance was introduced in India by the 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendments 25 years ago. Local government posed to be a vehicle of inclusive growth and development and tool of empowering democracy. Unfortunately after 25 years local government is inefficient and corrupt. Indeed, the village panchayats have not succeeded in enhancing the well-being, capabilities and freedom of citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issues and Inefficiencies in Local\ngovernment in India: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Inadequate devolution:<\/strong> Devolution,\nenvisioned by the Constitution, is not mere delegation. It implies that\nprecisely defined governance functions are formally assigned by law to local\ngovernments, backed by adequate transfer of financial grants. All states have\nnot been forthcoming in giving Panchayats and Municipalities enough funds,\nfunctions and functionaries. <\/li>
  2. Low technical knowledge: <\/strong>Low technical\nknowledge has restricted the aggregation of planning from village to block to\ndistrict to state to centre. Hence bottom up approach of planning is very\nlimited.<\/li>
  3. Adhoc meetings: <\/strong>There is lack of clear\nsetting of agenda in gram sabha meetings leading to adhocism with no proper\nstructure.<\/li>
  4. States\u2019 attitude:<\/strong> From postponing the\nelections to the failure to constitute State Finance Commissions and District\nPlanning Committees (DPCs), States have been seen to violate the various\nprovisions of Parts IX and IXA.<\/li>
  5. Inadequate Infrastructure: <\/strong>Insufficient\nstaffing, office space, and infrastructure bottlenecks hamper the functioning\nof local bodies.<\/li>
  6. Less taxes: <\/strong>Panchayats and Municipalities\nhave not used their financial powers efficiently. Very few Gram Panchayats levy\nand collect taxes (on markets, fairs, property, business and so on).<\/li>
  7. Parallel Institutions: <\/strong>Most States\ncontinue to create parallel bodies that make inroads into the functional domain\nof local governments. <\/li>
  8. Criminal politics: <\/strong>Criminal elements and\ncontractors are attracted to local government elections, tempted by the large\nsums of money now flowing to them. They win elections through bribing voters\nand striking deals with different groups. Furthermore, higher officers posted\nat the behest of Members of Legislative Assemblies, often on payment of bribes,\nextract bribes from local governments for plan clearances, approving estimates\nand payments. Thus, a market chain of corruption operates, involving a partnership\nbetween elected representatives and officials at all levels. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How to make local governance\neffective?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. To curb these tendencies, first, gram sabhas and\nwards committees in urban areas have to be revitalised. <\/li>
    2. Consultations with the gram sabha could be\norganised through smaller discussions where everybody can really participate.\nEven new systems of Short Message Services, or social media groups could be\nused for facilitating discussions between members of a gram sabha.<\/li>
    3. Adequate training to develop expertise in the\nmembers so that they contribute more in planning process and in implementation\nof policies and programmes.<\/li>
    4. Decentralisation of governance can be achieved\nwith devolution of power to lower levels. More financial resource generation\npowers should be give to these institutions.<\/li>
    5. Local government organisational structures have\nto be strengthened. Local governments must be enabled to hold State departments\naccountable and to provide quality, corruption free service to them, through\nservice-level agreements.<\/li>
    6. Gram Sabha functioning should be improved. It\nshould fully participate in planning, implementation and performance review\n(social audit) of various schemes with the participation of all stakeholders\nincluding women and other vulnerable groups.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      A reasonably robust democratic structure for local governance should be given life through the practice of a robust democratic culture. It is important to instil more powers to local government providing more finance to them to work properly at same time keeping them accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual Introduction. Body. Various inefficiencies in local government. How to plug theses inefficiencies? Conclusion. Way forward. Decentralized democratic governance was introduced in India by the 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendments 25 years ago. Local government posed to be a vehicle of inclusive growth and development and tool of empowering democracy.… Continue reading [Answered] \u201cLocal governments still remain hamstrung and ineffective after decades of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments.\u201d Discuss.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49132,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-52072","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}