Panchayat

Why Panchayat?

What all do the ward members , Up-Pradhan, Pradhan do?

Why are BDC Member and Zila Parishad elected for?

How much do they get for their services?

It is a good time to know about the Panchayat and its functions as presently Himachal Pradesh  underwent the Panchayat Elections, 2021. We are having new teams to run our panchayat and work for its welfare.  Living in a digital world, it is a transparent system and should be so.

Let us understand what all are the winners of Panchayat elections supposed to be doing. We will also be knowing about the facilities available to the common men for the elections. The Gram Panchayats in India follow the three tier system ( article 273-b ) i.e :

  1. The Gram panchayat: at village level
  2. Panchayat Samiti: at block level and
  3. Zila parishad : at district level                                                                                                                                           The first and foremost thing to understand here is the importance of Gram Sabha.

The Gram Sabha

Gram Sabha
  1. Grama Sabha shall, in such manner and subject to such procedure, as may be prescribed, perform the following powers and functions, namely :-
    1. Render assistance in the collection and compilation of details required to formulate development plans of the panchayat;
    2. Formulate the proposals and fixing of priority of schemes and development programmes to be implemented in the area of Village Panchayat;
    3. Prepare and submit to the Village Panchayat a final list of eligible beneficiaries in the order of priority relating to the beneficiary oriented schemes on the basic of the criteria fixed;
    4. Render assistance to implement effectively the development schemes by providing facilities locally required;
    5. Provide and mobilise voluntary service and contribution in cash or in kind necessary for the development plans;
    6. Suggesting the location of street lights, street or community water taps, public wells, public sanitation units, irrigation facilities and such other public utility schemes;
    7. Formulate schemes to impart awareness on matters of public interest like cleanliness, environmental protection, pollution control and to give protection against social evils like corruption, illicit and clandestine transactions;
    8. Promote harmony and unity among various groups of people within the area of the Grama Sabha and to organize arts and sports festivals to develop goodwill among the people of that locality;
    9. Monitor and render assistance to the beneficiary communities engaged in the developmental activities within the area of the Village Panchayat.
    10. Verify the eligibility of persons getting various kinds of welfare assistance from the Government such as pensions and subsidies;
    11. Collect information regarding the detailed estimates of works proposed to be implemented in the area of the Grama Sabha;
    12. Make available details regarding the services to the rendered and the activities proposed to be done by the concerned officials in the succeeding three months;
    13. Know the rationale behind every decision taken by the panchayat regarding the area of the Grama Sabha;
    14. Know the follow up action taken on the decisions of the Grama Sabha and the detailed reasons for not implementing any of the decisions;
    15. Co-operate with the employees of the village panchayats in the sanitation processes and rendering voluntary service for the removal of garbage;
    16. Find out the deficiencies in the arrangements for water supply, street lighting etc. within the area of the Grama Sabha and to suggest remedial measures;
    17. Assist the activities of parent-teacher associations of the schools within the area of the Grama Sabha;
    18. Assist the public health activities especially prevention of diseases and family welfare, within the area of the Grama Sabha.
    19. Perform such other functions as may be prescribed from time to time.
  2. The Grama Sabha shall, in its ordinary meeting or in the special meeting convened for the purpose; discuss the report referred to in sub-section (6) of section 3 and it shall have the right to known about the budgetary provisions, the details of plan outlay, item wise allocation of funds and details of the estimates and cost of materials of works executed or proposed to be executed within the area of the Grama Sabha.
  3. The Audit report of the performance audit report placed for the consideration of the Grama Sabha shall be discussed in the meeting and its views, recommendations and suggestions shall be communicated to the concerned village panchayat.
  4. The quorum of the Grama Sabha shall be ten per cent of the number of voters of its area and the procedure for convening and conducting meetings of the Grama Sabha shall be such as may be prescribed. Provided that the quorum of the meting of a Grama Sabha which was adjourned earlier for want of quorum shall be fifty when convened again.
  5. The Officers of the Village Panchayats shall attend the meetings of the Grama Sabha as may be required by the President and an officer nominated by the Village Panchayat as the co-ordinator of the Grama Sabha shall assist the convenor in convening and conducting the meetings of the Grama Sabha and in recording its decisions in the Minutes Book and also in taking up follow up action thereon.
  6. The Grama Sabha may appoint, elect or constitute, general or special sub-committees for the detailed discussions on any issues or programmes and for the effective implementation of the schemes and the decisions and in furtherance of its rights and responsibilities. Provided that such committees shall consist of not less than ten members of whom, not less than half shall be women.
  7. Resolutions may be passed on majority basis, in the meetings of the Grama Sabha in respect of any issue with in its jurisdiction, however, effort should be made to take decision on the basis of general consensus as far as possible.
  8. When beneficiaries are to be selected according to any scheme, project or plan, the criticism for eligibility and order of priority shall be fixed by the panchayat subject to the terms and conditions prescribed in the scheme, project or plan and such criterion shall be published in the manner prescribed and intimated to the Grama Sabha.
  9. The priority list prepared by Grama Panchayat after inviting applications for the selection of beneficiaries and conducting enquiries on the application received, shall be scrutinised at the meeting of the Grama Sabha in which the applicants are also invited and a final list of the deserving beneficiaries, in the order of priority, shall be prepared and sent for the approval of the Grama Panchayats.                                                                                                       Starting from the grass root, i.e. the ward member, let us understand what all the panchayat does through the chosen ones.   

Ward member

Ward member is the representative of his or her ward. He/ she is the one who presents the demands and requirement of his/ her ward to the Panchayat , so that the requisition or demand may be fulfilled in time. He/ she needs to be agile enough to check upon the facilities like street lights, roads, sewerage provided to the people of his/her ward. He/ she should be the voice of his/her ward.  His / her proactive approach and ability to resolve the demands of his/her ward makes the Pradhan of the Village/Panchayat efficient for that particular ward.

Up- Pradhan

The Up-Pradhan is the replacement for a Pradhan in case of his/her absentia. As such he is the one who can check upon the negligence of Pradhan of the Panchayat in one way or other. His/ her function is to assist Panchayat Pradhan in his/her endeavours for development work of the Panchayat.

Pradhan

Pradhan is the head of the Panchayat. Any development work or any quarrel in panchayat is to be resolved by him/her. He/ she works for the welfare of the panchayat and the Panchayat Secretary is the government official who takes care of the finances and sanctions from the state government. The Panchayat Pradhan and secretary work in unison for the development works of the panchayat.

The Panchayat Pradhan, or the Sarpanch has following roles to play:

1. Organize Gram Sabha meetings on first Sunday preferably of every month.( Minimum 2 in a year)

2. Ensure large participation in the Gram Sabha meetings.

3. Preside over the gram Sabha meeting and answer to the queries put over by the villagers.

4. Play a pro-active role for the initiation of proper action on Gram Sabha resolutions.

BDC Member

A BDC Member/ Member of Panchayat samiti supervises different panchayats under his or her block. He/she acts as a co-ordinating body between District Panchayat and Gram Panchayat.

The Panchayat Samiti collects all the prospective plans prepared at Gram Panchayat  level and process them for funding and implementation by evaluating them from the angles of financial constraints, social welfare, and area development. It also identifies and prioritizes the issues that should be addressed at the block level.

Zila Parishad

The Zila parishad aims at development at the district level and providing civil amenities for the people in the particular area that comes under the zila parishad.

The members of zila parishad are elected for a period of 5 yrs. They meet once in a period of 3 months and the meeting is headed by a chairperson who is elected indirectly (from amongst the elected members) while the other members are elected directly by the people.

Zila Parishad basically acts as policy-making and guidance for the Gram Panchayats and Panchayat Samiti.

Facilities provided by Government for voters and members of Panchayat

The digitization of almost all data of ours have made it easy for all of us to find  and get help. For finding our name in electoral roll of Himachal Pradesh the following link can be checked- https://admis.hp.nic.in/erms/erollsearch.aspx

Panchayat works can be found out from the link given : http://admis.hp.nic.in/nesd/smis/publicpanchayatreport.aspx The  link contains the panchayat wise schemes, expenditure done/ not, and progress work of different panchayats of Himachal.

The honorarium that the Panchayat election winners get at present is as follows;

Zila Parishad- 5,000/- per month.

BDC Member- 4500/- per month

Pradhan- 4500/- per month

Up-Pradhan- 3000/- per month

Ward Member- 250/- per gram sabha meeting.

The honorarium has been enhanced on 19th June, 2019.

More details regarding it can be read from http://www.himachalpr.gov.in/PressReleaseByYear.aspx?Language=1&ID=13934&Type=2&Date=19/06/2019

Our Duties

We being the citizens of our country and proud members of our gram sabha have many duties. Following are our main duties;

1. The first one is to chose such members for our Panchayat who are pro-active, good listeners and observers. Those who know their duties and responsibilities well in advance and are inclined for development of our area.

2. Be pro-active. We should know our needs, our rights and our duties.  Our contribution in village development work matters a lot. We should attend the Gram Sabha meeting whenever we get time for it.

3. Our duties must be put in fore front against our rights. If we are performing our duties well, we deserve to demand for our rights.

Have a VISION,

Make the right DECISION,

VOTE !  VOTE for a REASON,

Show your VISION & your PRECISION.

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