DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT
 ADMINISTRATION
 

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

In India the district has always been the pivot of the structure of administration. With the acceptance of a Welfare State as the objective the emphasis in district administration has come to be placed overwhelmingly on development activities. The progress of the national extension and community development, increase in the number of village panchayats and the response of the people to opportunities for cooperation in development programmes have served to stress the importance of planning and execution of development programmes within the district with the full support and participation of the best non- official leadership at all levels.

2. In the First Five Year Plan problems relating to the administration of district programmes were reviewed and a number of recommendations made. The object of this chapter is to consider action that has been taken during the past three or four years and to suggest directions in which the administration of district programmes may be further strengthened in view of the tasks to be undertaken in the second five year plan. As was pointed out in the First Five Year Plan, apart from finding personnel and the need to adapt the administrative system to the temper of democratic government, the reorganisation of district administration has to provide for-

(1) establishment for development at the village level of an appropriate agency which derives its authority from the village community;

(2) integration of activities of various development departments in the district and the provision of a common extension organisation;

(3) linking up, in relation to all development work, of local self-governing institutions with the administrative agencies of the State Government;

(4) regional coordination and supervision of district development programmes; and

(5) strengthening and improvement of the machinery of general administration.

These tasks are of even greater importance for the second five year plan.

3. The strengthening and improvement of the machinery of general administration has to be undertaken at State headquarters as well as at other levels. At State headquarters coordination is achieved through an inter-departmental committee of Secretaries in charge of various development departments. The chairman of the committee is the Chief Secretary or the Secretary in charge of planning. Generally, the functions of coordination for planning and for the implementaion of district programmes are combined in a single officer commonly described as the Development Commissioner. As a rule, a committee of the State Cabinet under the Chief Minister provides overall guidance and direction. State Planning Boards which include leading non- officials have also been constituted in most of the States.

4. At the beginning of the first five year plan several States, especially those which had been recently integrated, were without adequate administrative cadres. This deficiency has been largely made good, but several small States are experiencing difficulty in obtaining officers on deputation from other States. States which had abolished zamindari or jagirdari such as Bihar, Rajasthan and Hyderabad are taking steps to provide the necessary administrative agencies at various levels.

5. Steps which have been taken during the past few years such as the programme of national extension and community projects, integration of district development activities on the national extension pattern, and the development of village panchayats, point to the need for speeding up the development of democratic institutions within the district In this respect, a certain. hiatus has continued to exist which it is necessary to remove. It is important that sound institutions should be built up as early as may be possible to enable the people of each area to assume the principal responsibility for the development of their resources and for solving their local problems as part of the wider scheme of state and national planning.

6. The implementation of the plan and of national extension and community projects have enhanced the responsibilities of the district administration. The

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additional personnel located in the district by the development departments for carrying out national extension and community projects and other programmes have been a source, of strength to the district administration. On the other hand, the task of supervision over different branches of activity has become larger and more complex and the claims upon the time and energy of the Collector have increased. Largescale programmes for agricultural development, expanding and improving the cooperative movement and promoting village and small industries and the development of urban areas are new responsibilities for which the Collector will have specially to equip himself. It is obvious that administrative agencies have a much larger part to play in these directions than ever before. The people, also look to a larger share in the working of various programmes. In many States, to enable the Collector and the team of officers at the district level to meet the new demands, additional Collectors and District Development or Planning Officers have been appointed and there has been greater delegation of authority. The Collector, the Sub-Divisional Officer and the Block Development Officer are functioning as leaders of teams of specialists whose work they guide and knit together. In several States more sub-divisions have been created, and phased programmes for establishing new sub-divisions are being followed. Action along these lines should be pursued systematically in all States as it has been decided to extend the national extension service programme over the entire country in the next five years.

VILLAGE PLANNING AND VILLAGE PANCHAYATS

7. The preparation of the first five year plan in the States took place mainly at State headquarters. Subsequently, attempts were made to break up State plans into district plans. In national extension and community project areas, as programmes were carried to the village to be worked in cooperation with the people, the significance of village planning was increasingly realised. In the programme of local development works local communities had to propose schemes which they could undertake through their own labour with support from the Government. It has been recognised that unless there is comprehensive village planning which takes into account the needs of the entire community, weaker sections like tenant-cultivators, landless workers and artisans may not benefit sufficiently from assistance provided by the Government. The national extension movement aims at reaching every family in the village. This aim cannot be fullfilled unless, as was pointed out in the First Five Year Plan, there is an agency in the village which represents the community as a whole and can assume responsibility and initiative for developing the resources of the village and providing the necessary leadership. Indeed, rural progress depends entirely on the existence of an active organisation in the village which can bring all the people---including the weaker sections mentioned above-into common programmes to be carried out with the assistance of the administration.

8. These considerations have been taken into account in the preparation of the second five year plan. Early in 1954 State Governments were requested to arrange for the preparation of plans for the second five-year period for individual villages and groups of villages such as tehsils, talukas, development blocks, etc. It was essential that local initiative in formulating plans and local effort and resources in carrying them out should be stimulated to the maximum extent possible. This would help to relate the plans to local needs and conditions and also to secure public participation and voluntary effort and contribution. Village planning was to be concerned primarily with agricultural production and other associated activities, including cooperation, village industries, communications and other local works programmes. These suggestions were generally followed and in all States village plans and district plans were prepared and formed a basis of the draft plans presented by State Governments.

9. The methods adopted for preparing the second five year plan have provided valuable training both to the rural people and to rural officials associated with development. It is realised that the pattern of district administration envisaged in the national extension and community development programme will remain incomplete unless village institutions are placed on a sound footing, and are entrusted with a great deal of responsibility for carrying out local programmes. The experience of setting up ad hoc bodies in villages to implement development programmes has also reinforced this conclusion. The development of village panchayats on the right lines has significance for several reasons. Under the impact of new developments, including the growth of population, land reform, urbanisation, spread of education, increase in production and improvements in communications, village society is in a state of rapid transition. In emphasising the interest of the community as a whole and in particular the needs of those sections which are at present handicapped in various ways, village panchayats along with cooperatives, can play a considerable part in bringing about a more just and integrated social structure in rural areas and in developing a new pattern of rural leadership.

10. It is the general aim to establish a statutory panchayat in every village, especially in areas selected for national extension and community development projects. During the first five year plan the number of village panchayats has increased from 83,087 to 117,593. According to the tentative programmes

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drawn up for the second five year plan, by 1960-61 the number of village panchayats will increase to 244,564. All over India there is need to review village boundaries so that there might be evolved good, efficient working village units with live panchyats. Thus, there are over 380,020 villages in India with populations of 500 and below. More than 78 million people or 27 per cent of the rural population live in such villages. There are 104,268 villages with a population between 500 and 1000. About 73 million people live in these villages, constituting over 25 per cent of the rural population. More than half the rural population thus lives in villages with populations below 1000. A proportion of such villages is in hilly areas which are sparsely populated, and in these grouping may be difficult In other areas question of combining existing villages into units with a population of about 1000 deserves to be examined. It is necessary to have villages which are small enough to have a sense of solidarity and yet not so small that personnel cannot be provided or the essential services, organised for their benefit. The second conference of local Self-Government Ministers held in 1954 recommended that where individual villages are not large enough to serve as units for panchayats, a single panchayat may serve a population of 1000 to 1500. This is useful up to a point, but the real problem concerns the organisation of convenient village units.

11. In the First Five Year Plan it was recommended that to enable panchayats to play their part in organising village development programmes, legislation should confer on them certain functions relating to. village production programmes and the development of village lands and resources. Recently this proposal has been further examined. The functions of village panchayats may be distinguished broadly between two groups, administrative and judicial. Administrative functions may be divided conveniently between (1) civic, (2) development, (3) land management and (4) land reforms. The civic functions of panchayats are embodied in legislation in different States in more or less similar terms. They include such tasks as village sanitation, registration of births, deaths, etc., organisation of village watch and ward, construction, maintenance and lighting of village streets, etc.

12. The functions of village panchayats in relation to development may be set out as follows:-

(1) framing programmes of production in the village;

(2) in association with cooperatives, framing budgets of requirements for supplies and finance for carrying out programmes;

(3) acting as a channel through which an increasing proportion of government assistance reaches the village;

(4) developing common lands such as waste lands, forests, abadi sites, tanks, etc., including measures for soil conservation;

(5) construction, repair and maintenance of common village buildings, public wells, tanks, roads, etc.;

(6) organisation of mutual aid and Joint effort in all activities;

(7) promotion of cooperative societies;

(8) organising voluntary labour for community works;

(9) promoting small savings; and

(10) improvement of livestock.

13. The functions of panchayats in respect of management of village lands and the implementation of land reforms are specially related to the lines along which it is proposed that the agrarian structure should be reorganised and are explained in chapter IX. The main land management functions are:

(1) regulation of the use of common lands such as waste lands, forests, abadi sites, tanks, etc.;

(2) cultivation of lands set apart for the benefit of the village community, as in consolidation of holdings;

(3) adaptation of standards of good management and cultivation to local conditions and their enforcement; and

(4) association with the work of maintenance of land records;

The functions of panchayats in relation to land reforms arise from legislation which may be enacted by each State. In the main,they entail the association of the village panchayat with such activities as-

(1) determination of land to be allotted to owners and tenants on the exercise of rights of resumption for personal cultivation,

(2) determination of surplus lands on the application of ceilings on agricultural holdings, and

(3) redistribution of surplus lands arising from the imposition of ceilings.

Village panchayats are already associated in several States in the work of consolidation of holdings.

14. The judicial functions of panchayats concern-

(1) the administration of civil and criminal justice,

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(2) enforcement of minimum wages for agricultural workers, and

(3) simple disputes pertaining to land.

The common pattern in States for facilitating the exercise of these functions is to establish separate judicial panchayats whose territorial jurisdiction extends as a rule to a number of villages.

15. It was recognised in the First Five Year Plan that the process of election by which panchayats are constituted might not always throw up a sufficient number of persons with qualities most needed in village reconstruction such as good farmers, cooperative workers and social workers. Similarly, instances might occur in which weaker sections of the population, especially the landless, might not be adequately represented in the panchayat. Nomination of additional members, which was suggested as a possible course in the First Five Year Plan, is not free from defects. To meet deficiencies, it may be desirable to empower village panchayats to co-opt a limited number of persons, say, two or three, in the case of smaller panchayats and up to, say, one-fifth in the case of the larger panchayats. A representative of the principal cooperative society of the village could also be an ex-officio member of the village Panchayat. In the panchayat legislation of a number of States provision exists for a measure of reservation in favour of Harijans and backward classes. In the actual administrations of panchayat legislation it is necessary to pay special attention to the representation through election of weaker sections of the village community.

16. Once it begins to function actively an institution like the village panchayat will soon face the difficult problem of finance. Panchayat legislation in most States provides for series of sources of revenue such as tax on trade or profession, property tax, licence fees, fines and watch. and ward tax. In most cases, however, these do not yield any significant resources. In the main, panchayats have to rely on three sources given to them by State Governments. The first of these is the grant of a proportion of the land revenue. The second, of which there are not many instances yet is the right given to the panchayat to collect land revenue and to realise the collection fees allowed to village headmen. The third source is the right to utilise income from common lands, tanks, etc. In the Punjab and in one or two other States, in the course of consolidation of holdings, by agreement a certain amount of land is given to the village com- munity, so that the income can be used for common benefit Grants to panchayats of a proportion of the land revenue are made in several States. They vary from 10 to 15 per cent. at one end to about 30 per cent. at the other. It is desirable that a proportion of the land revenue in each village should be assigned to the panchayat for local development. This will serve as a nucleus fund to be augmented by the panchayat from contributions in labour and money from members of the community. We suggest that State Governments may consider making grants to village panchayats in two parts, a basic proportion, say, 15 to 20 per cent. of the land revenue, with an additional grant extending up to, say, 15 per cent. of the land revenue on condition that the panchayat raises an equal additional amount by taxation or voluntary contributions. Panchayats should also be assisted in developing sources of recurring income.

17. In programmes sponsored by State Governments and district authorities, the panchayat has to find a proportion of the cost through labour and through contributions in other forms. Its own direct expenditure concerns the provision of elementary services in the village and the maintenance of minimum staff. The responsibilities entrusted to panchayats will continue to grow. In some cases full- time panchayat secretaries have been appointed; in others part-time arrangements have been made. It is not necessary to prescribe any set pattern, but different ways of providing staff assistance to village panchayats which are being adopted in the States should be studied and, according to circumstances, those Which are found suitable can be adopted. The staff for the Panchayats should be suitably trained.