Implementation of Recommendation on Public Services Mechanism
The Minister of Panchayati Raj Shri V. Kishore Chandra Deo has said that in 1957, a Committee under the Chairmanship of Balwantrai Mehta on Community Development Projects and National Extension Services recommended that public participation in community works should be organized through statutory representative bodies. Subsequently, the NDC endorsed the basic principles of democratic decentralization enunciated in the report and laid on States the duty of working out the structures suitable to each States.
Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha today, he said, the Ashok Mehta Committee Report of 1978 recommended that Panchayati Raj may be included in the Constitution. In keeping with the spirit of the Ashok Mehta Committee recommendations, some states, including West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, revisited their respective Panchayati Raj systems and undertook several new initiatives to endow local bodies with more powers, leading to these initiatives being cited as “second generation” panchayats, which served as a prime inspiration and example for subsequent reform i.e. Constitution (Seventy Third Amendment) Act, 1992 which came into force on 24th April, 1993.
Shri Deo said, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj have constituted an Expert Committee to examine how Panchayats could be leveraged for more efficient delivery of public goods and services under the Chairmanship of Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha).
****
PKM/DB