Polity

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Summary
Polity Class 36

THE CLASS STARTED WITH A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS TOPICS (05:02 PM)

PESA ACT, 1996 (05:02 PM)

The 73rd Amendment applied to normal states, It has excluded the tribal areas and states
that are dominated by tribal populations.
It does not apply to the states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and certain other areas.
These other areas include hill areas of Manipur for which the district council exists and
the Darjiling district of West Bengal.
In 1996, Parliament passed the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA)
Important Features of the PESA, Act:
State Governments are expected to enact the legislation in scheduled areas in consonance
with the traditions and customs of tribal peoples.
Every Village shall have a Gram sabha and every Gram sabha is given the authority to
safeguard and preserve the traditions and customs of the people.
Every Panchayat shall be required to obtain a certification on the utilization of funds
from Gram Sabha.
Reservation of seats shall be in proportion to the communities present with the village
and reservation for scheduled tribes shall not be less than half of the total number of
seats.
All the positions of the chairperson should be reserved only for scheduled tribes.
Planning and management of water bodies shall be entrusted to panchayats.
Gram sabhas and Gram panchayats must give their approval to grant licenses for the
exploration of the minor minerals.
The state legislature must ensure that panchayats at the higher level do not take away the
powers of gram sabhas or panchayats at lower levels.
Panchayats also have the power to manage minor forest produce to implement
prohibitions to prevent alienation of forest land to prevent and control money lending to
scheduled tribes and formulate local plans for the utilization of resources.
Major problems under PESA, Act:
According to a recent study conducted by the NITI Ayog, Most of the states have failed to
implement this landmark legislation.
For Example, Utilization certificates are given by panchayats without involving gram
sabhas, resulting in systematic corruption.
The sale of the minor forest produce and utilization of minor water bodies is done
without involving the stakeholders at the lowest level.
State governments have deliberately not defined the powers of gram sabhas.
It led to exploitation by gram panchayats.
Welfare and developmental schemes were approved and implemented on paper by gram
sabhas without having any real meetings at the ground level.
 Absence of political will, lack of clarity, absence of awareness among the tribal
communities, bureaucratic apathy, and resistance to change are major reasons for the
failure of the PESA, Act.
In states like Jharkhand precious resources are given to private contractors without
involving stakeholders at the lowest level.
Criminal nexus between state politicians and district administration has made sure that
this landmark legislation would ultimately fail to realize its objectives.
Way forward:
Awareness of tribals about their rights.
Make it much more effective by clearly defining the powers and responsibilities of the
gram sabha.
It should also be made mandatory that the meetings of gram sabhas are held regularly
and gram panchayats should not be allowed to take any decisions without the approval of
gram sabhas.
Sensitivity training of the bureaucracy and changing their value systems.
Strict implementation of Environmental laws, rules, and regulations to protect the tribal
resources.

URBAN LOCAL GOVERNANCE (06:16 PM)

The 74th Constitutional Amendment was enacted in 1992, to provide constitutional status
to urban local bodies.
Urban local governments in India are under three different ministries at the central level.
1) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
2) Ministry of Defence in case of Cantonment Areas.
3) Ministry of Home Affairs in the case of Union Territory.
Evolution of Urban development in India:
In 1688, The first municipal corporation was set up in Madras.
In 1726, Municipal corporations came up with Bombay and Calcutta.
Then lord Mayo's declaration focused on the financial decentralization of Urban bodies.
Lord Ripon's resolution on local self-governance, is also known as the Magna Carta of
Local Self Governments.
He is also known as the Father of local self-government in India.
As part of this resolution, Urban Local bodies are given certain functions to perform
including drinking water, Sanitation, Housing, Roads, Education, and Health.
They were also given financial powers to perform these functions.
Officials were asked to work under people-elected representatives in Urban areas.
In 1919, the Government of India Act, introduced a diarchy in provinces where local self-
governance was transferred to Indian ministers.
The Government of India Act, of 1935 has made local self-government a provincial
subject.
The 65th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1989 provided constitutional status to urban
local bodies but it was defeated in Rajya Sabha. Finally, it was passed as 74th CAA, in
1992.
It has added Part 9A to the constitution.
It consisted of Articles from 243P to 243ZG.
It has added a 12th schedule to the constitution 18 subjects were transferred to Urban
local bodies.
The act has envisaged three different types of Municipalities in Urban Areas;
1) Nagar Panchayats:
It is an area that is in the process of transformation from village to Urban.
2) Municipal council:
For smaller urban areas.
3) Munciple corporations:
for larger urban areas
Definition of Urban Areas: Under the 74th Amendment, the governor of the state is given
the power to define the Urban area.
The Criteria are as follows:
a) Population
b) Density of the population
c) Revenue generated for local self-government.
d) Percentage of people employed in non-agricultural activities.
e) Economic importance.
f) Any other criteria decided by the Governor.
Important features of 74th amenment:
All members should be directly elected by the people and municipal areas are divided
into territorial constituencies known as municipal wards.
There should be ward committees in municipalities having a population of 3,00,000 or
more.
Reservation of seats for SCs and STs and also 1/3 reservation for Women.
Tenure is 5 years.
State election commission is given the responsibility to conduct elections.
Municipality has the power to formulate and implement plans.
The State Finance Commission is responsible for the devolution of tax revenues and also
the distribution of grants in Aid from the consolidated fund of the states.
Municipality can also raise revenue by imposing certain taxes, collecting user charges,
and also by raising money through municipal bonds.
Every state must constitute a district planning committee which is given the
responsibility of formulating plans for the entire districts.
District Planning Committee:
A district planning committee consists of elected members from both rural and urban
local bodies.
80% of the members of the DPC are elected representatives from the Panchayats, which
primarily represent rural areas, while the remaining 20% are elected representatives
from municipalities, which represent urban areas.
These DPCs are expected to formulate the plans of the entire districts by aggregating the
plans of both rural and urban local bodies, but experiments with decentralized planning
in India have not been successful for the following reasons.
1) Out of 28 states only 14 states till now have constituted DPCs.
2) Out of these 14 states only very few of them have formulated plans.
3) Till now, all the states have constituted only a second state finance commission(SFC).
Very few states have constituted the third SFC.
No state has constituted a fifth State Finance commission without proper and accurate
information about finances, it becomes impossible for DPCs to formulate plans.
Still there are a huge number of centrally sponsored schemes, which are implemented at
the state and local levels.
Added to these Centrally sponsored schemes, state governments also implement their
own welfare schemes.
It ultimately makes DPC irrelevant because of the centralized top-down approach to
development.
Elections are not held regularly for local self-governments.
Without elections it becomes impossible to constitute DPCs.
Most of the members from rural and urban local bodies are from socially disadvantaged
groups.
They do not have the education, skills, and knowledge to formulate plans for the districts.
Attitude of bureaucracy, Bureaucrats who are supposed to much-needed assistance to
these DPCs suffer from colonial attitudes. It comes in the way of their effective
functioning.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF URBAN LOCAL BODIES (07:50 PM)

1)Â Municipal Corporation:


They are established by the state legislature and in UTs by Parliament.
A municipal corporation has three authorities:
a) Municipal council:
It is a legislative wing of a Municipal corporation.
Members are directly elected and some members are nominated.
It is headed by the Mayor.
2) Standing committees:
They are headed by municipal councilors and they deal with subjects like education,
health, drinking water, sanitation, public works, and so on.
3) Municipal commissioner:
A civil servant responsible for the implementation of plans formulated by municipal
corporations.
Notified area committees:
It is created for two different types of areas.
a) A fast-developing town due to industrialization.
b) A town in the process of becoming a municipality.
The state government issues notification it is established under the state municipal act.
It is completely a nominated body and its functions and responsibilities are defined in the
notification.

THE TOPIC FOR THE NEXT CLASS: URBAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT (To be Continued)

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