Previous Year Question

A Study Team under the chairmanship of Balwant Rai Mehta was constituted in 1957. Its principal purpose was to study the working of the Community Development Programme and the National Extension Service and suggest measures for ensuring effective participation of people in rural development.

The Committee observed that rural development could not be effective merely through programmes administered from above. Local people had to be given real responsibility and power and made participants in the development process. This approach developed into the concept of Democratic Decentralisation.

The Committee recommended a three-tier Panchayati Raj structure—Gram Panchayat at the village level, Panchayat Samiti at the Block level and Zila Parishad at the district level. The Panchayat Samiti was envisaged as an important elected self-governing institution at the Block level.

An important recommendation of the Committee was that the Panchayat Samiti should be constituted by indirect elections from the Village Panchayats. It was envisaged to play a major role in the implementation of development activities.

Following the recommendations of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, Panchayati Raj was taken forward and Rajasthan became the first State to implement the system in 1959. Thus, the Committee laid the institutional foundation for democratic decentralisation and the modern Panchayati Raj system in India.