I have my own doubts whether you like it or not, nobody on this earth can eradicate corruption from the face of our Nation, India. Our system of Democracy, "the Panchayat Raaj", does not permit any Elected Member to be truthful and patriotic.
Panchaayati Raj is a system of governance in which gram panchayats are the basic units of administration. It has 3 levels: Village, Block and District.
The term 'panchayat raj' is relatively new, having originated during the British administration. 'Raj' literally means governance or government. Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj, a decentralized form of Government where each village is responsible for its own affairs, as the foundation of India's political system. His term for such a vision was "Gram Swaraj" (Village Self-governance).
It was adopted by state governments during the 1950s and 60s as laws were passed to establish Panchayats in various states. It also found backing in the Indian Constitution, with the 73rd amendment in 1992 to accommodate the idea. The Amendment Act of 1992 contains provision for devolution of powers and responsibilities to the panchayats to both for preparation of plans for economic development and social justice and for implementation in relation to twenty-nine subjects listed in the eleventh schedule of the constitution.[2]
The panchayats receive funds from three sources – (i) local body grants, as recommended by the Central Finance Commission, (ii) funds for implementation of centrally-sponsored schemes, and (iii) funds released by the state governments on the recommendations of the State Finance Commissions.[2]
In the history of Panchayati Raj in India, on 24 April 1993, the Constitutional (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions. This Act was extended to Panchayats in the tribal areas of eight States, namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan from 24 December 1996. Now panchayati raj system exists in all the states except Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Also all the UTs except Delhi. (Refer: [1])
The Act aims to provide 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all States having population of over 2 million, to hold Panchayat elections regularly every 5 years, to provide reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Women, to appoint State Finance Commission to make recommendations as regards the financial powers of the Panchayats and to constitute District Planning Committee to prepare draft development plan for the district.The 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj consists of a) village level panchayat b) block level panchayat c) district level panchayat.
Powers and responsibilities are delegated to Panchayats at the appropriate level :-
- Preparation of plan for economic development and social justice.
- Implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice in relation to 29 subjects given in Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution.
- To levy, collect and appropriate taxes, duties, tolls and fees.
Village level panchayat
It is called a Panchayat at the village level. It is a local body working for the good of the village. The number of members usually ranges from 7 to 31; occasionally, groups are larger, but they never have fewer than 7 members.
The block-level institution is called the Panchayat Samiti. The district-level institution is called the Zilla Parishad.
Intermediate level panchayat
Panchayat samiti is a local government body at the tehsil or Taluka level in India. It works for the villages of the Tehsil or Taluka that together are called a Development Block. The Panchayat Samiti is the link between the Gram Panchayat and the district administration. There are a number of variations of this institution in various states. It is known as Mandal Praja Parishad in Andhra Pradesh, Taluka panchayat in Gujarat, Mandal Panchayat in Karnataka, etc.In general it's a kind of Panchayati raj at higher level.
Constitution
It is composed of ex-officio members (all sarpanchas of the panchayat samiti area, the MPs and MLAs of the area and the SDO of the subdivision), coopted members (representatives of SC/ST and women), associate members (a farmer of the area, a representative of the cooperative societies and one of the marketing services) and some elected members.
The samiti is elected for 5 years and is headed by the chairman and the deputy chairman.
Departments
The common departments in the Samiti are as follows:
- General administration
- Finance
- Public works
- Agriculture
- Health
- Education
- Social welfare
- Information Technology and others.
There is an officer for every department. A government appointed block development officer is the executive officer to the samiti and the chief of its administration the dapartment of
Functions
- Implement schemes for the development of agriculture.
- Establishment of primary health centres and primary schools.
- Supply of drinking water, drainage, construction/repair of roads.
- Development of cottage and small-scale industries and opening of cooperative societies
The main source of income of the panchayat samiti are grants-in-aid and loans from the State Government.
District level panchayat
In the district level of the panchayati raj system you have the "zilla parishad". It looks after the administration of the rural area of the district and its office is located at the district headquarters. The Hindi word Parishad means Council and Zilla Parishad translates to District Council. It is headed by the "District Collector" or the "Distric Magistrate" or the "Deputy Comminissioner". it is the link between the state government and the panchayat samiti (local seld government at the block level)
- Constitution
Members of the Zilla Parishad are elected from the district on the basis of adult franchise for a term of five years. Zilla Parishad has minimum of 50 and maximum of 75 members. There are seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and women.
The Chairmen of all the Panchayat Samitis form the members of Zilla Parishad. The Parishad is headed by a President and a Vice-President.
- Functions
1. Provide essential services and facilities to the rural population and the planning and execution of the development programmes for the district.
2. Supply improved seeds to farmers. Inform them of new techniques of training. Undertake construction of small-scale irrigation projects and percolation tanks. Maintain pastures and grazing lands.
3. Set up and run schools in villages. Execute programmes for adult literacy. Run libraries.
4. Start Primary Health Centers and hospitals in villages. Start mobile hospitals for hamlets, vaccination drives against epidemics and family welfare campaigns.
5. Construct bridges and roads.
6. Execute plans for the development of the scheduled castes and tribes. Run ashramshalas for adivasi children. Set up free hostels for scheduled caste students.
7. Encourage entrepreneurs to start small-scale industries like cottage industries, handicraft, agriculture produce processing mills, dairy farms, etc. implement rural employment schemes.
8. They construct roads,schools,& public properties.And they take care of the public properties.
9. They even supply work for the poor people.(tribes,scheduled caste,lower caste)
- Sources of Income
1. Taxes on water, pilgrimage, markets, etc.
2. Fixed grant from the State Government in proportion with the land revenue and money for works and schemes assigned to the Parishad.
Gram panchayats are local governments at the village or small town level in India. As per 2002 there were about 265,000 gram panchayats (Not Grama Panchayat Members - Members will be 15 times more than this.) in India. The gram panchayat is the foundation of the Panchayat System. A gram panchayat can be set up in villages with minimum population of 300. Sometimes two or more villages are clubbed together to form group-gram panchayat when the population of the individual villages is less than 300.Let us analyse our system of Democracy known as "Panchayat Raaj". In the Panchayat Raaj, every 300 people elect a Panchayat Member. This alone will make the strength of Panchayat Members in the country ( 113 crore /300 = 37 lakhs) to over 37 lakhs. Even though there is provision for electing 37 lakhs Panchayat Members, we have constituted only 2,65,000 Panchayats in the last election.
Now let us see at what cost our nation keeps this democracy. Even if the nation pays @Rs. 1,500/- per panchayat member per month the cost to the nation will be 1,500/- x 12 x 37 lakhs which will be around 6.66 Lakh crores per annum. What about their allowances and other incidental expenditure on these members will be anothe 6.66 Lakh crores. Then what about staffs for office and office maintenance will be not less than 10 times the salary of a member, which will be nothing less than 66.6 lakh crores.
This shows we the citizens of this great country spends around Rs. 80 lakh crores only to declare the world that we are following a democracy. What about the developmental costof the country. More or less the same amount the State Government collects to run the State Government and an equal amount being collected by the central Government to run the central government.
In other words the present system of Governance collects around Rs.200 and odd Lakh crores rupees to run the Governance of a nation of 100 crore population and needs another few Hundred crores for development of the nation. In another simple calculation, our system of Democratic Government collects around Rs.2 Lakh per citizen to establish that we are a democracy.
Another figure is that 70% of our population does not earn even Rs. 20/- per day or Rs. 7,000/- per annum and are exempted from direct income tax, but they pay tax & duties on products. So for the remaining 30% people find the system very very expensive and start venturing to avoid taxes and duties. This will lead them to Gross Corruption.
This is my personal view and expect some healthy discussion on it.
Gangadharan Nair. N
M. Rangarajan
(retired Group General Manager, ONGC)
B 2 – 301, SRIRAM SPANDHANA,
Chellaghatta village,
Bangalore – 560037.
Phone: 25227955, 42027955, mobile 9945091581
e-mail: rangajan@yahoo.com / rangajan@gmail.com
dated 9th November 2010.
FIGHT AGAINST CURRUPTION AND ERADICATION OF CURRUPTION.
Everybody in India wants to fight against curruption and wants to eradicate curruption and make India a curruption free society in the world. Good luck to everybody!! The big question is "How are we going to do it?"
There are lager number of agencies to control and eradicate curruption in India like, CVC, CBI, Anti Curruption Bueraus of State Governments, Lokayukta, etc etc. Each one of them is a Toothless Body. They just don't have any powers of prosecute. They have to get permission form the Government and authorities that be, which never comes. Justice Santosh Hegde, Karnataka Lokayukta who has exposed hundreds of currupt people, has openly admitted that he has not been able to prosecute even a single person in his tenure!!
May be you can expose currupt people through RTI - then what? nothing happens and he/she will continue merrily amasing more wealth!!
Of course, it is foolish to expect that any Goverment gives these agencies poweres to prosecute - Their pet excuse is that such powers will be misused. Ha! Ha! Government is Politician and there is nothing like an Honest politician, even if there is one, he/she will be useless and cant do anytahing.
Today's centre page article "sub verse" in The Times of India is good reading!! (reproduced below)
Money for everyone
The problem is not too much corruption;
it's not enough corruption
Prasenjit Chowdhury
That some Indians are so ostentatiously rich while others are not calls for a social revolution - we all must ask or our democratic right to make more money. So it is absolutely wrong to demonise the likes of the Reddy brothers, Madhu Koda, Lalit Modi and Suresh Kalmadi. They are actually martyrs to the cause of social egalitarianism who got waylaid on their way to wealth, I hear people quibbling about right and wrong means. Misplaced value, I must say. Moneymaking is the mantra, by fair means or foul.
We are envious of the grand opportunity for moneymaking available to a handful of lucky officials, keeping in mind that the apex court expressed serious concern over rampant corruption in the preparation for a Rs 70,000-crore bonanza called the Commonwealth Games. Given a chance, we would all want to make money My theory is that we are not all embezzlers for the simple reason that most of us are mortally afraid of being caught pants down.
Much in the same vein, all the hullabaloo about corruption in India stems from jealousy.
Those who cringe at the prospect of India becoming the most corrupt nation on earth, discount the fact that the desire to be rich has gained a new social momentum in India. With the passage of the licence-permit raj of the old socialist system that spawned an inefficient regulatory regime, cripplingly high compli ance and transaction costs, a corrupt bureaucratic system and a rent-seeking political system, newer avenues to make money are now available to office-bearers.
Moneymaking needs versatility and hard work. Osama bin Laden was known to be in the business of raising ostriches in Kenya. Felling timber inTurkey, breeding camels and setting up factories in Sudan, the combined income from which was to the tune of $50 million a year in 2001. Had he not dissipated himself as a terrorist mastermind, he could have given many a Bill Gates a run for their money!
Prying into the tales of wealth of the big-buck earners is surely an exercise of anguished Voyeurism but i cannot help it. So I crooned over Forbes magazine's India Rich List* 2010, to learn how partial Lord Mammon is to the Reliance Industries head (and Antilla'-owning) Mukesh Ambani, or to the UK-based steel baron, Lakshmi Mittal, or to Azim Premji of Wipro who, at number 3, increased his net worth to $17.6 billion from $14.9 billion last year.
What do they do with that unconscionable amount of money, however well deserved? That, I guess, is a silly question. Only 10 per cent of India's charity funds comes from individuals and corporates and there are many better options than philanthropy. With lots of money, you can buy a villa in a Pacific island, yacht around the world in medieval luxury and have the prettiest of women prancing around you. You can drive a limousine (or a Bugatti Veyron), write with a 333 series John Harrison pen, wear a Franck Muller watch, sip Petrus red wine, or simply open a nunnery.
It has been revealed that over Rs 5 lakh crore of 'tainted' money has been siphoned illegally out of the country in the last eight years and stashed away by Indians in Swiss banks. Why must we baulk at this sheer scale of acquisitive entrepreneurship by saying that such unaccounted money causes great damage to the national economy? Pink Floyd said: "Money, it's a gas/ Grab that cash with both hands / and make a stash".
I have a personal plan to make money I will open up public urinals. I will charge people who must be willing to pay for relieving themselves in a 'holistic' atmosphere. It would be quite a money-spinner in a crowded India.
--
from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.
" Vande Matharam "
ng.puthoor@gmail.com
Gangadharan Nair N.
When you realize you've made a mistake, please have the courage
to admit it & also take immediate remedial steps to correct it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.