The Trinamool Congress has scored a massive victory in the panchayat elections in West Bengal. It is 45 years since the first election for modern panchayats was held in West Bengal, and 30 years since Parliament passed the 73rd and 74th Constitution amendments recognising panchayats and municipalities as constitutionally mandated local self-governments for rural and urban areas, respectively.
Over four and a half decades, decentralisation has enabled the implementation of land reforms and development programmes, helped rejuvenate agricultural growth, and improve rural infrastructure and other development works. It has also helped generate social and political awareness among the people and groom new leadership across social, economic and cultural barriers. Thus, decentralisation has strengthened the roots of democracy.
However, the momentum of the process, set in the first decade, has hardly been maintained over the years. The initial enthusiasm has been sacrificed at the altar of party rivalry and power grabbing. A panchayat has now been turned into a ground-level apparatus for implementing government programmes, and carry forward departmentalism with little creativity and grassroots innovation. According to Article 243G of the Constitution, apart from implementing subjects under the Eleventh Schedule, panchayats have the power to prepare their own plans for economic development and social justice that match with people’s needs and priorities. They can do so by mobilising local resources through an inclusive, transparent, and participatory process. The focus is on local resources, local analysis of problems and solutions, and a collective vision. But there is hardly any effort to accomplish this task.
