On Local Government

These are my views regarding local government in india and applicable to the world in the long run: V. Shruti devi

(Written in response to various suggestions from activists)

i expect you to all know all this, but since it does not reflect adequately in the notes you’ve been sending me, at the cost of being repetitive:

The Constitution of India has Four lists of matters for various strata of government and their overlaps. These are Union; State; Concurrent; Panchayat.

In terms of the implementation of these Constitutional requirements, there exist the Parliament (Sansad), and the State Legislatures plus Union Territories (Vidhan Sabhas etc.). There still does not exist a Panchayat Sabha at the All-India level as obviously envisaged by the Constitutional amendments brought about by the lawyers (whoever they were), of the late Prime Minister Shri. Rajiv Gandhi.

As a result, what you and company have been referring to as Funds, Functions and Functionaries, have been left languishing in the closets of curious entities that have manifested themselves as the Panchayat Raj Ministries of various State Governments across the Country.

As per my vision of the immediate, short, medium and long term, the priority should be to actualise this (Now) Constitutional Reality by Parliament initiating regular legislation by creating the Hindustan Panchayat Sabha.

Representatives of the Hindustan Panchayat Sabhas should meet a few times a year either using technology, or railway trains. (The headquarter needn’t be in Delhi, though the colonial Delhi Gymkhana Club would be an ideal location).

For their regular functioning, each Panchayat Sabha (And Gram Sabha where applicable), should meet for at least hundred days per year. All citizens should attend this. At the transitory phase, the money for this could be made available in the form of TA-DA to all participants through NREGA.

The bureaucracy that attends to/serves this should be drawn from reoriented ITDA staff; more people drawn from the NGO sector; forest guards could be reoriented where relevant.

Areas that fall under 5^th and 6^th Schedule and those that ought to fall under 5^th and 6^th Schedule but still are not, would also be a part of this structure without taking away from 5^th and 6^th Schedule status. In fact, the future plan should be to give greater impetus to these areas.

Similar moves should be made in connection with so-called urban areas and local governance structures that exist thereof.

This will address problems of poverty, inequality and injustice.

i assume that those who want Telangana want to deal with problems of poverty, inequality and injustice.

If the proponents of Telangana have any other priorities, they should let me know. 

V. Shruti Devi