Most imp Federalism 5

 A major step towards decentralisation was taken in 1992.

The Constitution was amended to make the third-tier of democracy more powerful and effective. Here are the key

features of 3-tier democracy:

1. It is constitutionally mandatory to hold regular elections to local government bodies.

2. Seats are reserved in the elected bodies and the executive heads of these institutions for theScheduled Castes,

Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

3. At least one-third of all positions are reserved for women.

4. State Election Commission has been created in each State to conduct panchayat and municipal elections.

5. The State governments are required to share some powers and revenue with local government bodies. The

nature of sharing varies from State to State.

Panchayati Raj System

Rural local government is popularly known as Panchayati Raj. Each village, or a group of villages in some States,

has a gram panchayat. This is a council consisting of several ward members, often called panch, and a president

or sarpanch. They are directly elected by all the adult population living in a village or ward. Gram Panchayat is

the decision-making body for the entire village.

The Panchayat works under the overall supervision of the Gram Sabha. All the voters in the village are its

members. It has to meet at least twice or thrice in a year to approve the annual budget of the gram panchayat and

to review the performance of the Gram Panchayat.

When Gram Panchayat are grouped together, they form a Panchayat Samiti or Block or Mandal.

The member of Panchayat Samiti representative is elected by all the Panchayat members in that area.

All the Panchayat Samitis or Mandals in a district together constitute the Zilla (district) Parishad.

Members of the Lok Sabha, MLAs of the district, and some other officials of other district-level bodies are the

members of Zilla Parishad.

Municipalities

As Gram Panchayat is for Rural areas, similarly we have Municipalities for urban areas. Big cities are constituted

into Municipal Corporations. Both Municipalities and Municipal Corporations are controlled by elected bodies

consisting of people’s representatives. The Municipal Chairperson is the political head of the Municipality. In a

Municipal Corporation such an officer is called the Mayor.