INTRODUCTION:

Governance refers to the process as well as result of making authoritative decisions for the benefit of the society. Government applies to ruling the people by official machinery while Governance relates to serving the people. Governance is a system in which exercise of the legitimate authority of the states does not become the prerogative of elected leaders or selected bureaucrats rather it seeks to ensure the active participation of people in this process in a just, transparent and accountable manner. Government is one of the actions in governance. Other actions, for example in rural areas may be influential land lords, association of farmers, co-operatives, religious leaders etc. while in urban areas, organized crime syndicate such as land mafia, may influence the decision-making apart from political parities and pressure groups.

Now the scholars have started to use the concept of ‘good governance’, means the system should be good enough to entertain the needs and problems of the people. Amartya Sen say that “It is not a question of more or less government, but what kind of government” which leads us to the issue of governance. Good governance can be understood as a set of eight major characteristics (i) participation (ii) rule of law (iii) transparency (iv) responsivness (v) consensus-oriented (vi) equity and inclusiveness, (vii) effectiveness and (viii) accountability. These characteristics assured that in Good governance the corruption is minimized, the views of the minorities taken into account and the voice of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making.

The good governance of course exists in a democratic country, where the governance is being determined by a constellation of factors in a democracy the ruling elite cannot shut their eyes to what is happening on the ground. The poor should get their food material in a public distribution shop at a reasonable and affordable rate, they should get health-facilities in the nearest hospitals maintained by the Panchayats, they should get water supply free of cost. They should have common facility for sanitation; common grazing land should be utilized. They should get employment opportunities. There should be equality between the higher level institutions and grassroots institutions in terms of the facilities and environment conditions it is to be noted here that the present governments, whether they are in democratic mode or in authoritarian mode, they lost their credibility in terms of its governability. Everywhere crisis have set in the process of governance. Democratic governments are seeking better options to manage the institutions and society and in the same way, the authoritarian institutions are also seeking better options. Thus decisively countries have come to the conclusion that the present form of governance cannot manage the situations. As a result a search is on for effective and efficient governance. On the process of search, decentralization of power is one of the options to reach out the poor and disadvantaged and rural sections of the society. The assumption is that it will work for them. The enactment of the 73^rd Constitutional Amendments has injected a new lease of life and vitality to India’s federal, democratic polity, planned socio-economic development and, nation- building in the country by accelerating the process of decentralization of authority and responsibility by the state to local governments in the rural areas.

Democracy cannot be enforced from the above, it has to be strengthened at the grass root level. Both Gandhi and Nehru were in favour of empowering people through PRIs. Despite structural and functional changes– through various committees, constitutional amendments followed by Amendments to the State Acts, Panchayats have not succeeded to acquire devolution of power and authority both administratively and financially as well. It is a stupendous task to make the state governments to devalue powers to the local bodies. Intricacies of the new Act are not known to the people. Bureaucracy that has developed so far has established a new nexus with political bosses, who are impediments for the progress in villages. The Bureaucracy which is at work at the grassroots level considers the people as slaves and they feel that the people are receivers and the government is a giver. One thing is clear from the attitude of the political parties towards the new Act that they are not interested in sharing power, with the grassroots institutions.

In the 73^rd Amendment Act , no doubt 29 items have been enumerated in the Eleventh schedule of the constitution; it is not clear as to what functions are to be performed by each tier. Thus, absence of clear functional jurisdiction for PRIs is serious lapse in the Amendment Act. If the new Panchayati Raj is to be made effective, there is a need to define the powers and functions of each tier distinctively. The best way is to mention them in the constitution itself instead of placing them at the discretion of the state legislatures. Against this background issues of governance and administration at the grass -root level have evaluated and activities for reform have to be initiated.

Reforms at the Ground Level:

Panchayat institutions are basically politico-administrative governance units to deliver services and achieve socio-economic development, both economic and social along with social justice through a participatory planning process. Hence the units have to be created with needed powers, functionaries and resources.

Financial viability, control and management of the local self-government institution are the most important dimension of the democratic decentralization. There is a provision of State Finance Commission (SFC) to make necessary recommendations for the allocation of resources to these institutions. But in reality state governments and their officials enjoy more powers on the local finance than these institutions. Hence the financial viability of these institutions is still in doubt.

Panchayat units should have the strength to survive on their own. If they are under the mercy of state government or central government for their day today functioning, they can not constructed as units of self-governance Panchayats , it should have the financial capacity to manage their functions independently. The units need autonomy to take decision on their own, based on the requirements and demands of the local populace. To perform the essential services to the community, the institutions need authority to generate resources from the same beneficiaries. Hence, Panchayats should be given taxation powers. Each village Panchayat should have a reasonably good resource base to stand on its own.

For effective performance of Panchayats the villagers should have right over land, water, forest and other resources. Village Panchayat can function effectively only with land reforms and without which attempts would yield only negative results. Environment is yet another important subject. At present village atmosphere is getting polluted because of the waste water of the industries in the town. Village Panchayats should have right to decide whether the industries (major) could be established in the village or not.

People have to be empowered and made to claim their rights and achieve development as their right. Citizens have to participate in the planning exercise and evolve a plan for which powers have to be vested with Panchayats. Grama Sabha is a basic unit created through the constitution to make the people participate in the process of governance. Their needs will be attended and their demands will be conceded. In this way powers have to be vested with the Gram Sabha. It should have powers to conduct social audit on the programmes and schemes executed by the line departments of the government. The Grama Sabha should be a decision centre, discourse centre, dialogue centre, information centre, dispute settlement centre. This is way it requires powers. By doing so the Gram Sabha will solve the problem of democratic deficit planning which has to be initiated at the micro level and people will be made responsible for their own development.

To reduce poverty, achieve human development and social justice, a rational administrative and managerial unit can be created from the village to the district.

The Bureaucracy working at the grassroots level considers the people as slaves and they feel that the people are receivers and the government is a giver. It is to be recognized that our bureaucracy is already handicapped by very poor capability to manage their own assigned functions. They are not oriented properly nor have professionalism. Therefore they have to be trained and are to be oriented to work with elected representatives. The Indian bureaucracy has been trained to work for their superiors rather than for their real masters (people). A new accountability culture has to be created as they are accountable to the people in a democracy. By equipping the bureaucracy in terms of attitude, behaviour and skills, targets can be achieved.

Functionaries at the block level are the employees of the government, are all on an ad-hoc basis with low salary. Normally to deliver services to the people at the grassroots we need a strong and capable cadre. When the salary is poor and their position is ad-hoc, one cannot fix accountability on them. Moreover capable individuals will not agree to take low salary. As long as the bureaucracy is kept ad hoc and in poor pay, it will lead to corruption, and poor delivery of services. Hence, they should be given good salary. Moreover professionalism is need at the grassroots but unfortunately, they are neither professional nor committed. Hence it should be given importance. Downward accountability has to be the main focus of the orientation. All the time our bureaucracy is oriented to look at output not outcome. Now it is necessary to make them look at the outcome of their activities for which incentives have to be given.

For any decision on policy one needs to have a scientific data base. In India, data is not collected from the grassroots but from the departments. As a result Panchayats are not having any validated scientific data on development aspects of the villages. In the absence of a data base how can the village administration work? To create and store, scientific data of the Gram Panchayat level, data regarding Bio-diversity, data on climate change, global warming, have to be registered at every Panchayat, otherwise it is very difficult to work on developmental issues. One of the weakness of the rural self-government is the power of dissolution. If the intention is to truly create grass root democracy then the power of dissolution should rest with the electorates and not with any other authority.

There is the absence of provision for recall of the Panchayati Raj political executive at the village Panchayat level. In the absence of such provision the accountability of the Panchayati Raj political executive will be hard to secure and sustain. Hence, there should be the provision of recall of the elected leaders at the Panchayat level by the electorate.

For the development work at Panchayat level, the political executive should be remained responsible to the members of Gram Sabha. The work completion certificate should be given by the Gram Sabha, where ever found any poor construction or damage in the construction, the political executive, the engineer, the contractor would remain accountable and responsible for lose.

REFERENCES:

1. Sen, Amartya (23004), ‘Development as Freedom’.

2. Susan, Pharr J., Robert Putnam and Russel Dalton, ‘A Quarter Century of Declining Confidence: Journal of Democracy, Vol. II: pp.5-25.

3. Kohti, Atul (1997), ‘Crisis of Govern ability’ in Sudipt Kaviraj (ed.), Politics in India, Delhi University Press, pp.383-87.

4. Levi, Margaret (2005), ‘Why we Need a New Theory of Government’. Perspective on Politics, Vol. 3, No.3., June. Pp.235-52.

5. Bava, Noorjahani (2000),’Democracy, Decentralization and Development in India: 73^rd and 74^th Amendments in Nooorjahan Bava (ed.) Book. Development Policies and Administration in India, Uppal Publishing House, New Delhi, p.3.

6. Palanithural, G. (1996), ‘Views from Grassroots’, in G. Palanitbural (ed.),New Panchayati Raj System, Kaniska Publishers, New Delhi, pp.117-19.

7. Sharma, L.N. (2003), ‘Democratic Decentralization in Relation to 73^rd and 74^th Amendments in Shiv Raj Singh (et al), Public Administration in the New Millennium: Challenges and Prospects, Anamika Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi, p.73.

Received on 20.05.2015 Modified on 15.06.2015

Int. J. Rev. & Res. Social Sci. 3(2): April- June. 2015; Page 79-81