New Initiatives for Democratic Decentralisation in Haryana

Although Haryana had panchayats in the pre-British days, called bhaichara panchayats (that is, community councils), they did not have any popular base at the local level. In the late 1930s, some initiatives were taken towards discharging judicial functions by the panchayats. In 1952, the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act was enacted to further democratise the local institutions. However, there was very little progress in this regard. In 1961, after amending the Gram Panchayats Act, a three-tier structure (gram panchayat, panchayat samiti, and zilla parishad) was adopted. This was based on the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee’s model of decentralised governance. After the creation of Haryana as a separate state in 1966, there followed a period of about two and half decades in which these institutions remained merely on paper. The unfriendly attitude of the political leaders was so high that even in 1973, the zilla parishads were abolished on the grounds of unclear distribution of power between zilla parishad and panchayat samiti. However, the main factor responsible for their dismal performance has been the lukewarm attitude of the state-level political leaders and officials towards panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) (Pal 1994: 1842).

This article, after providing a critique of decentralisation in Haryana, presents fresh initiatives which have been taken by the present government for the empowerment of PRIs in the state. This is followed by a section on the future course of action towards empowering these institutions.