Rahul pleads for empowering panchayats in J&K

JAMMU: 21 years after the 73^rd and 74^th Amendments were made in the Indian Constitution to empower the grassroots Panchayati Raj system and the Urban bodies elsewhere in the country, the Congress icon Rahul Gandhi is in Jammu today to plead for introduction of these amendments in Jammu and Kashmir where piecemeal powers were being granted to these bodies. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a public meeting in the Parade Ground at Jammu in 2002 had also pleaded for introduction of these amendments to enable the central government to provide the earmarked funds. However, the successive governments in J&K have not taken steps to strengthen these bodies. Because of the Article 370, no constitutional amendment is applicable in J&K until it is ratified by the state assembly.

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act was passed by the Parliament in April 1993. The Amendment provided a Constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions in India and left no discretion with the State governments in several important matters pertaining to these Institutions. Before the 73rd Amendment was  made effective, Article 40 of the original Constitution provided for a Directive to the government to take steps to organise village Panchayats and endow them with the powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as the units of self-government. But, by mid-eighties it was realised that the said Directive was not sufficient to institutionalise Panchayati Raj in India.

Objects and Reasons stated for introducing the 73^rd Amendment in the Parliament in 1991:-

Though  the  Panchayati Raj Institutions have been in existence for  a
long  time, it has been observed that these institutions have not been
able  to  acquire  the  status and dignity of  viable  and   responsive
people's  bodies  due  to  a number of reasons  including   absence  of
regular    elections,     prolonged      supersessions,    insufficient
representation  of  weaker sections like Scheduled  Castes,  Scheduled
Tribes  and  women,  inadequate  devolution  of  powers   and  lack  of
financial resources.

Objects and Reasons stated for introducing the 74^th Amendment in the Parliament in 1991:-

In  many  States  local  bodies have become weak  and  ineffective  on
account of a variety of reasons, including the failure to hold regular
elections, prolonged supersessions and inadequate devolution of powers
and  functions.   As a  result, Urban Local Bodies are  not   able  to
perform effectively as vibrant democratic units of self-government.