LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENT – THE UNFINISHED AGENDA
Common Cause has had an abiding interest in the theory and practice of local self government. It has been our firm conviction that given its continental dimensions and diversities our democratic polity will be able to achieve its full potential only when local communities are adequately empowered and given the means to take charge of their destinies.
In the year 2007, after an exhaustive study of actualization of the framework of democratic decentralization, which had been incorporated in the Constitution in 1993 through the 73rd and the 74th Amendments, we approached the Apex Court with the prayer that the anomalies and deviations observed in various states with reference to the Constitutional scheme should objectively be analyzed and rectified. Unfortunately, our PIL could not cross the initial hurdle and we were advised to withdraw it in order to retain the option to agitate the issue in High Courts of competent jurisdiction. Our resource constraints have so far not allowed us to exercise this option.
However, there is much that we are capable of, and have been doing, by way of documentation, analysis, collective reflection and advocacy. The present issue of your journal is devoted to the proceedings and conclusions of a seminar that we organized on March 28, 2012 to take stock of the progress made in the implementation of the scheme of democratic decentralization envisaged in the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments. The review was conducted from the perspectives of devolution of powers and resources on the one hand and capacity building at the level of institutions and functionaries on the other. It was our expectation that this assessment of the unfinished agenda of local self government would be of great help in evolving a strategy to accelerate the process of reconfiguring the power equations and resource allocations in our polity so as to give primacy to the aspirations and expectations of the people at the grassroots level. The conclusions and recommendations of the seminar have been presented to the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, state governments and other stakeholders.
While focusing on the unfinished agenda of the Constitutional mandate, we also thought it fit to cast a quick glance at some alternate paradigms of returning power to the people. This was meant to be a prelude to a more detailed inquiry, which we have since undertaken in a symposium on Participatory versus Representative Democracy: Exploring New Paradigms in Self Governance, held on October 27, 2012. We shall be reporting on the deliberations of this symposium in a subsequent issue of the journal.
- Kamal Kant Jaswal
