Examine the provisions of Panchayat Extension Services Act (PESA), 1996.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 73rd Amendment skips Fifth Schedule areas → Centre’s special responsibility → PESA extends Part IX while protecting tribal custom
Route 2 Bhuria Committee origin → “Constitution within the Constitution” → Gram Sabha, not elected Panchayat, made the seat of self-rule
4(a) state laws in consonance with customary law → 4(b) natural habitation/hamlet as village → 4(c) every village a Gram Sabha → 4(d) Gram Sabha safeguards customs, identity, resources, dispute resolution → 4(e) approves plans, selects beneficiaries → real powers: minor forest produce, water bodies, markets, money lending, intoxicants, land alienation → authority shifts Panchayat → Gram Sabha → Samatha upholds tribal resource control
promise on paper → state laws dilute PESA, power returned to Panchayat, line/forest departments override Gram Sabha → Dandekar: Gram Sabha authority not made superior → Bijoy: unfinished agenda
Route 1 radical in design, incomplete in practice
Route 2 realisation depends on bending state law and bureaucracy to the Gram Sabha
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
