PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Local Government
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.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
(23 73rd Amendment skips Fifth Schedule areas + Centre’s special responsibility – PESA extends Part IX while protecting tribal custom G23 Bhuria Committee origin > “Constitution within the Constitution” ~ Gram Sabha, not elected Panchayat, made the seat of self-rule
Body flow
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
Counter-view
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
Conclusion routes
GB radical in design, incomplete in practice 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.
