Panchayati Raj System :-

An Overview :
Panchayati Raj System is something which has been
existed into the society from the ancient times and it
has also evolved from ancient times till now in a very
positive way. Panchayati Raj is the system which helps
the rural areas/villages to develop. It is basically a
three-tier administration which helps the village to
grow and develop. Panchayat or also known as self
government is basically not a idea of post –
independence it is a idea from British era only.
In British era , these panchayats or self government
is used as elected councils with executive and judicial
power. With the evolution of time , panchayat have
also evolved, earlier panchayat elections were only
held between the upper caste of the people over rest
of the village people.
HISTORY OF PANCHAYAT:
Panchayat were not something which has made
after independence. But it is something which has been
there since the British era. Earlier panchayats were
taken as the council elections in which the most
reputed peoples of the village were elected over the
other people of the village. But with the evolution of
time people started getting education regarding all
these things. These panchayats also becoming known
by one other name self – government. This self
government was basically formed between 1957 and
1986 through the formation of 4 committees and these
are-
a) Balwant Raj Committee (1957)
b) Ashok Mehta Committee (1978)
c) GVK Rao Committee (1985)
d) LM Singhvi Committee (1986)
Through the 73rd Amendment Act , two new
sections were added to the constitution and
those new sections were IX and IX-A in the year
1992.
DURATION OF PANCHAYAT:
India is a democratic country , every election
should be conducted in India at a equal interval. In
India, the duration of every election is termed at every
five years, every election should be conducted at every
five years in order to run the country in a free and fair
manner. So therefore, election for panchayat in India is
conducted at every five years.
RESERVATION IN PANCHAYAT:
 In India the reservation system has been originally
granted in the constitution of India. In India, every
election has to do some reservation as it is mandatory .
According to clause 3 of the Article 243D of the Indian
constitution there should be one – third seats should
be reserved for women, schedule caste and schedule
tribes in the panchayat election. Not less than one –
third should be reserved for these peoples.
The reservation for these people is done so that they
can get equal opportunities in comparison to other
people. When these reservations are done then there
is a male dominating society. At the time of
independence , schedule castes and schedule tribes
were not given any importance in the society , so in
order to give importance to them reservation for these
people were made.
ROLES AND RESPONSBILITIES OF PANCHAYAT:

So, basically panchayat or self – government is

divided into three tier administrative system :-
a) Village panchayat
b) Panchayat samiti
c) Zilla parishad
Now we will discuss these three in detail:
Whenever , we talk about the structure of the
panchayat the lowest unit which comes is the
“village panchayat”. This unit comes up when the
population of the villages happens to be too small , this
panchayat body is also accountable for the general
body of the village also known as gram Sabha. This
gram Sabha at least meet twice in a year to discuss
about the village and how the growth of the village can
be done. Now , we will talk about the persons who can
contest election for these village panchayats.
So , the people who contest elections for these
village panchayats are no other than the village people
only.

Now , moving forward with another type of self

help government and that is panchayat samiti. As we
know that village panchayat is for a small number of
people or small number of group. But panchayat samiti
is for the larger number of people or larger number of
group. By saying larger number of people or group it
means I am talking about talukas or mandals .
It works for the villages at the tehsils and are so
called development blocks , it is also called panchayat
of panchayats. The work of the panchayat samiti is to
collect all the prospective plans made at the gram
Sabha level in order to collect the funding for the same
and implementing those plans. As this panchayat
samiti works at the block level, so it can also prioritize
the works which should be able to help in the
development of the villages.
Now as we move towards our last level of
government in panchayat system. This last level is
known as zilla parishad. As just like panchayat samiti is
the link between village panchayat and zill a parishad ,
just like same zilla parishad is the link between gram
Sabha and state government. Zilla parishad is also
known by different names in different states such as –
District development council , Zilla parishad and
Mohkuma parishad.
The main work or responsibility of a zilla parishad
is to look around all the developmental works under
the district commissioner. It also supervises the work
of gram sabha as well, the most important
responsibility of the zilla parishad is that it advises the
state government regarding the working of the gram
sabha or village panchayat of their own jurisdiction.

CONCLUSION :
So, in last I would like to conclude my article on
Panchayati raj system with the provision of
Constitution. The Panchayat system has evolved very
much from the time of independence till now and in
future also it will definitely evolve.
In the present time , panchayat is giving opportunity
to the lower background of people. So, that no one is
deprived from society.