Fifty Years of Panchayati Raj and Decentralised Development

Contents: Foreword. Preface. The functioning and role of Panchayats: Reflections on the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of statutory Panchayati Raj/Rakesh Hooja. I. Panchayati Raj: the Initial years: 1959-1974: 1. Community development and Panchayati Raj/B. Mukerji. 2. Democratic decentralisation: a new administrative challenge/Douglas Ensminger. 3. Developmental administration under Panchayati Raj: the Rajasthan experience/Iqbal Narain. 4. Development administration--new dimensions/J.N. Khosla. 5. The collector and Panchayati Raj/B. Sivaraman. 6. Evolution of official and non-official roles in Mysore state\'s Panchayati Raj/Dan Fritz. 7. Control, supervision and guidance of Panchayati Raj Institutions/Henry Maddick. 8. The role of technical departments under Panchayati Raj/V. Nath. 9. Panchayati Raj in Rajasthan/Ralph H. Retzlaff. 10. Political parties and Panchayati Raj/Myron Weiner. 11. Panchayat Samiti Staff: trouble ahead/David C. Potter. 12. Organizational analysis of Panchayati Raj Institutions in India/S.N. Dubey. II. Towards the 73 Constitutional Amendment 1975-1993: 13. Panchayati Raj and Agricultural development: some issues/S.P. Jain. 14. Revitalisation of Panchayati Raj/Sudesh Kumar Sharma. 15. Panchayati Raj versus decentralisation of administration/B. Hooja. 16. Reforms in Panchayati Raj: a comparative analysis of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal/C.V. Raghavulu and E.A. Narayana. III. Post-Constitutional Amendment scenario 1993-2009: 17. Globalisation and decentralised governance: reflections on Panchayats in India/Biswajeet Chatterjee and Dilip Kumar Ghosh. 18. Panchayati Raj in Rajasthan: Policy issues and concerns/Meenakshi Hooja and Rakesh Hooja. 19. Role of Panchayat secretary in Andhra Pradesh: a study/A. Vijay Kumar and E. Sudhakar. 20. Local government finances: a case study of Andhra Pradesh/Jayaprakash Narayan and P. Sanjay. 21. Financial relations between state and local governments: a study of Karnataka state/M. Devendra Babu and N. Jayaramaiah. 22. Finances of Panchayats in West Bengal: new areas of resource mobilisation/Kanak Kanti Bagchi and Tapan Kumar Ghosh. 23. Augmenting the financial resources of Sub-national governments (Panchayati Raj Institutions) in India/O.P. Bohra and M. Sharma. 24. An analytical study of state control and supervision over local bodies in India/S.A. Palekar. 25. Reforms for empowerment of Panchayati Raj bodies/Shiv Raj Singh. 26. Capacity building for Rajasthan\'s Panchayat Representatives and functionaries: What the training efforts should cover/Rakesh Hooja. 27. Status of Dalits and Dalit Gram Panchayat leaders in Tamil Nadu/G. Palanithurai. 28. Women in Panchayati Raj/Nupur Tiwari. 29. Governance of Panchayats in Andhra Pradesh: the need for revitalization/Ch. Balaramulu and D. Ravinder. Index. 

"Panchayati Raj started in India from self sufficient and self-governing village communities that survived vicissitudes of history and has emerged today as institutions of governance at the third tier provided with Constitutional support. The constitution visualises panchayats as institutions of self-governance. Panchayati Raj in its present form witnessed various stages in its development since independence and the powers and functions of Panchayat Raj Institutions vary from state to state. 

The present volume captures the journey of Panchayati Raj from an institution within the culture of India to organs of decentralised governance with constitutional status. 

This voyage is succinctly captured at various stages of evolution and setbacks in the volume by the renowned researchers and authorities who portray working of the Panchayati Raj in different states over the last fifty years through their writings in the Indian Journal of Public Administration. It covers different time phases during the 50 years of the evolution of Panchayat Raj in the country in three sections (i) The initial 15 years, (ii) Towards the 73 Constitutional Amendment, and (iii) The Post-Constitutional Amendment Scenario. The selection presented here covers different issues and facets of Panchayati Raj that have been raised and discussed by academicians, administrators and policy makers in the five decades. All such aspects of provisions that combine representative and direct democracy into a synergy and are expected to result in an extension and deepening of democracy in India get reflected in the articles included in the volume." (jacket)