Strengthening of Panchayats in India: Comparing Devolution across States Empirical Assessment - 2012-13 April 2013 Sponsored by Ministry of Panchayati Raj Government of India The Indian Institute of Public Administration New Delhi Strengthening of Panchayats in India: Comparing Devolution across States Empirical Assessment - 2012-13 V N Alok The Indian Institute of Public Administration New Delhi Foreword It is the twentieth anniversary of the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution, whereby Panchayats were given constitu- tional status.While the mandatory provisions of the Constitution regarding elections and reservations are adhered to in all States, the devolution of powers and resources to Panchayats from the States has been highly uneven across States. To motivate States to devolve powers and responsibilities to Panchayats and put in place an accountability frame- work, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, ranks States and provides incentives under the Panchayat Empowerment and Accountability Scheme (PEAIS) in accordance with their performance as measured on a Devo- lution Index computed by an independent institution. The Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) has been conducting the study and constructing the index while continuously refining the same for the last four years. In addition to indices on the cumulative performance of States with respect to the devolution of powers and resources to Panchayats, an index on their incremental performance,i.e. initiatives taken during the year, was introduced in the year 2010-11. Since then, States have been awarded for their recent exemplary initiatives in strengthening Panchayats. The Report on"Strengthening of Panchayats in India: Comparing Devolution across States - Empirical Assessment 2012-13" further refines the Devolution Index by adding two more pillars of performance i.e. ‘capacity building of panchayats’ and ‘accountability of panchayats’ to the existing ‘4 Fs’, i.e. framework, functions, finances, function- aries. The Report also presents six sub-indices of these pillars, expanding the scope of the Devolution Index, to a ‘Panchayat Strengthening Index’. During the Twelfth Five Year Plan, the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Shashaktikaran Abhiyan, a new Centrally Spon- sored Scheme of the Ministry will provide budgetary support to the efforts of the States for strengthening their Panchayats. 20% of available resources under this scheme,will be linked to States’ performance on criteria related to devolution and accountability. It is hoped that the findings of this Report would encourage State governments and other concerned authorities, to take greater and more effective steps for devolution of powers and resources to Panchayats as these continue to evolve as efficient instrumentalities of local self governance. New Delhi Loretta M. Vas 22 April 2013 Secretary to the Government of India Ministry of Panchayati Raj (iii) Acknowledgements This volume is based on the report of the study entrusted to the Indian Institute of Public Administration by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj on 7 August 2012. This volume is also the outcome of a research endeavour started in 2004 when the Ministry of Panchayati Raj organised a series of state consultations in the form of seven round tables of state ministers-in-charge of Panchayati Raj. In the fifth round on `Annual Reports on the State of the Panchayats including preparation of a Devolution Index’ held at Srinagar 28-29 October 2004, I presented a concept paper on the devolution index which was developed with Laveesh Bhandari. The paper formed the basis in the subsequent work undertaken at the NCAER and the IIPA in respect of Panchayat Empowerment and Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS), a central sector scheme. Studies for the last four years conducted in IIPA have benefitted immensely from the support and intellectual inputs of Mrs. Rashmi Shukla Sharma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj. As the coordinator of this research project, I’d like, first of all, to thank Mrs. Loretta M Vas, Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Panchayati Raj who extended generous support, offered constructive comments and wrote the foreword of this volume. Over these four years, the work has benefitted from the support of a number of people and institutions whom I’d like to thank here. The project could never have been implemented without the co-operation of state governments. I wish to record my sincere thanks to the Principal Secretaries/Secretaries in charge of panchayats and nodal officers in the state governments or SIRD for their continuous support, assistance in making the data available to us and advice at various stages of the study. Officials dealing with the local finance in the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Office of the Accountant General in states were also consulted. I’m grateful to elected representatives and officials at various panchayats for their valuable inputs in the validation of data. These four years were punctuated by a series of workshops that took place at IIPA, Delhi. These were crucial moments, spent discussing conceptual frameworks, research objectives, methodologies, identifying partners, field work related issues, preliminary findings, comparative perspectives etc. It provided the opportunity to submit our thoughts and receive feedback from a number of actors involved in Panchayat Raj. Some of them offered comments in the National Workshop organised on 5 October 2012 at IIPA, New Delhi. Participants include- Laveesh Bhandari, Jos Chathukulam, Joy Elamon, M.A. Oommen, G. Palanithurai, Mahesh Purohit, M.N.Roy, Atul Sarma, Rashmi Shukla Sharma, Loretta M. Vas, S.M. Vijayanand and state representatives. Some of them particularly, S.M. Vijayanand, M.N. Roy and Rashmi Shukla Sharma offered stimulating comments at the subsequent stages. I express my heartfelt thanks to all of them. In addition, I wish to thank all the State Secretaries and State Nodal Officers who participated in the National Workshop organised on 6 February 2013. In the past, I had benefitted from the wisdom of many domain experts and senior officers of the Ministry and multilateral institutions who participated and offered comments in various National Workshops organised in 2009 and 2010 with the UN Solution Exchange. The study draws upon the previous three study reports that were brought out in the form of a book. The first two of them were co-authored with Prof. P.K. Chaubey, who took keen interests in the subject. (v) Thanks are due to team survey agencies namely, Indicus Analytics, Samarthan, CRRID and CRM for the conduct of the survey in 23 states. Dripto Mukhopadhyay, Anup Srivastava, Hakikat Singh and Jos Chathukulum respectively guided the survey team. The very empirical nature of this research, also means that a number of young researchers, have helped in the investigations, literature survey and data analysis. I want to express our gratitude to all of them particularly to Poornima M, Ramandeep Kaur, Bharati Sahu, Anuj and Swastik. Mahesh Bisht, Dharmender Singh, Sanjeev Kumar, Raj Kumar Jindal and Bimla Goswami helped in the production of the volume. Other units of the Institute including the library, computer centre, account section and administration headed by Registrar Dr. C.Giri provided critical inputs at various stages of the study. I’m thankful to all of them. None of them is however responsible for the remaining errors. Finally, heartfelt thanks are due to Shri T N Chaturvedi, Chairman, IIPA for his encouragement and guidance. V.N. Alok (vi) List of Abbreviations AAO Assistant Accounts Officer ACA Additional Central Assistance ADC Additional Deputy Commissioner ADC Assistant Development Commissioner AEO Agriculture Extension Officer AEO Additional Executive Officer AEW Agriculture Extension Worker ANERT Agency of Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology APD Additional Project Director ARWS Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme ASHA Accredited Social Health Activist ATR Action Taken Report AWW Anganwadi Worker BDO Block Development Officer BDPO Block Development Panchayat Officer BPL Below Poverty Line BP Block Panchayat BRGF Backward Regions Grant Fund CAA Constitution Amendment Act C&AG Comptroller and Auditor General CBO Community Based Organisations CDO Chief Development Officer CEO Chief Executive Officer CRSP Central Rural Sanitation Programme CHC Community Health Centre CIC Chief Information Commissioner CO Chief Officer CPI Consumer Price Index CSS Centrally Sponsored Scheme DC District Collector DD Deputy Director DDC District Development Commissioner (vii) DDPO District Development Panchayat Officer DI Devolution Index DM District Magistrate DP District Panchayat DPAP Drought Prone Area Programme DPC District Planning Committee DRDA District Rural Development Agency DPO District Planning Office DPO District Planning Officer DPRO District Panchayat Returning Officer EA Executive Assistant EO Extension Officer EO Executive Officer EVM Electronic Voting Machine GDP Gross Domestic Product GIS Geographical Information System GoI Government of India GP Gram Panchayat GPEO Gram Panchayat Extension Officer GS Gram Sabha GS Gram Sevak HDI Human Development Index IAY Indira Awas Yojana ICDS Integrated Child Development Services ICT Information and Communication Technology IIPA Indian Institute of Public Administration ITDA Integrated Tribal Development Agency IWDP Integrated Wasteland Development Programme JD Joint Director JEO Joint Executive Officer KIC Karnataka Information