Panchayats must give up 'Dilli to Dehat' principle: Aiyar

New Delhi, June 25 (UNI) Panchayats have become instruments of state-level political patronage that nurtures and promotes ''muscle and money raj'', reducing the local bodies to fiefdoms of Sarpanches and Block Development Officers, says Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) should not proceed from ''Dilli to Dehat'' but from ''Dehat to Dilli'' to implement in real sense the perception of village republics as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi, Mr Aiyar said while wrapping up the three-day workshop on ''Writers and Thinkers on Local Governance and Panchayati Raj'' which ended at Vigyan Bhawan here today.

He agreed that there was a ''three-point democratic deficit in the system --- representativeness limited to its arithmetical sense; the deficit in the mandate for PRI despite constitutional sanctions and deficit in an intelligent political realtionship established between different tiers of governance''.

This, he added, had turned the panchayats into instruments of patronage rather than participation.

Mr Aiyar held the state governments responsible for not allowing the panchayats to function as independent entities on the pattern of local self governments. But he did not agree with other participants that the Constitution should be amended to ''impose full-blown Panchayti Raj on recalcitrant states''.

Stating that PRI was a state subject and that there was no point trying to get it transferred to the concurrent list, the Minister said the only alteranative was to convince the states through intensive dialogue, both collectively and bilaterally, on the merits of strengthening and empowering the local bodies -- even if at a tortoise pace.

''We are at the mid-point of Panchayati Raj revolution as Indian states, barring Jharkhand, have nearly 2.5 lakh elected PRIs and along with the urban local bodies, constitute 32 lakh elected represenatives with proportional representation for scheduled and backward castes.'' Of them, 12 lakh are elected women representatives in rural India -- over 40 per cent of all PRI representives -- as against only 33 per cent reservation for them, he added.

The fact was also highlighted by an eminent participant in the workshop, Dr Hafiz Pasha, UNDP Assistant Administrator for Asia and Africa, who said India had an unparalleled intensive and extensive local bodies system in the world which had the potential to bring about gender equality.

He stressed the need for decentralising state powers through the PRIs for effective democratic polity in India. For which, he said, India should proceed towards strengthening district planning and monitoring system by restructuring the governing tiers and improving the ''devolution index'' on the lines of Brazil and other Latin American countries.

Mr Pasha supported another participant, eminent social activist Aruna Roy's contention that Right to Information Act (RTI) should be effectively implemented to bring about tranparency in the PRI functioning, which, in turn, would empower the panchayats to a greater extent.

MORE UNI JSS LR KN1816