Short Note on Balwant Rai Mehta Committee Report
In 1957, the Balawant Rai Meheta Committee recommended for the introduction of three-tier Panchayati Raj System in India. Following the recommendations of this committee report the then government of India and the State Governments too took different measures to strengthen the Panchayati-raj system existing at that time. It was with this purpose the Balwant Rai Meheta Committee was appointed by the Central Government of India in 1957.
The committee recommended for the three-tire Panchayati Raj system in India. These three-tires are
- the Gram-Panchayats at the village level or at the bottom,
- the Panchayat Samiti at the block level or in the middle and
- the Zilla Parishad at the district level.
It was recommended that these three-tires would have to be related with each other. The committee also discussed about the philosophical basis of the Panchayati-Raj-system. Through the Panchayati Raj system acts as a link between the local leadership and the government. The local leadership always enjoys the trust of the local people and it is this local leadership which translates the governmental policies and decisions into action. That is why the Gram-Panchayat is considered as the lowest unit of the government.
It’s aim is to use the panchayat as the means or medium for proper implementation of the governmental policies and programme. It may be mentioned in this regard that the basic idea of Mahatma Gandhi was to establish the Panchayati Raj as an independent self-government system or as independent republic. However, in course of time, the Panchayati Raj system lost much of its popularity and popular participation in it also became insignificant.