Accountability is key in new State Panchayat Raj Act

CM wanted best practices of South Africa and England to be in the new Act

Best practices of England and South Africa will reflect in the new Panchayat Raj Act to be brought in by the Telangana government that will fix responsibilities and make the sarpanches accountable to the delivery of services.

An Ombudsman covering two to three districts with some decision making powers will oversee the functioning of gram panchayats. Sarpanches, who now treat their position as a political power centre, will be made accountable for efficiently discharging their duties in delivery of basic amenities or else may lose their positions.

These are some of the key aspects that will figure in the new Panchayat Raj Act, that is likely to be introduced in the Assembly sessions starting again after a couple of weeks. “After an enormous exercise, the new Act is being framed and some of the best practices of South Africa and England and also States within India like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have been incorporated,” an official involved in the exercise told

The Hindu .

Autonomous institution

The CM wants to release sufficient funds directly to the sarpanches coming from various sources, including the Centre, and in fact it is his idea that the panchayats should be more functional with responsibilities attached.

The Ombudsman will be a non-political figure since courts might take objection and they would be chosen from retired judicial officers or persons of eminence in society and people can directly lodge complaints with them if the services are not delivered as per the norms. It will be an autonomous institution and will not report to local officials.

In England the Ombudsmen act on such complaints and invariably the local body heads resign owing to public pressure.

In fact, a team of Panchayat Raj officials was to visit South Africa to study the system in depth but has been postponed owing to elections there. Similarly, the team will also visit England.

More panchayats

Officials said till now the Government used to act on the charges of ‘commissions’ by the sarpanches and other local body heads and there was no norms to take action if they failed to deliver.

The new Act will be all the more important since the government wants to create new panchayats reducing the habitations in the present panchayats for effective delivery.

Some panchayats have more than 10 hamlets and the sarpanch or the secretary never visit them. Reducing the size will also reduce pressure on the sarpanches, the official explained.