What is meant by Local Self Government ?

India is one of the largest democratic countries in the world. According to

2001 census report the population of India was 102.70 crores. The area of
our country is about 32, 92,054. If compare the area to other country, India
stands on seventh position regarding area. The population of India lives in
villages, towns and cities. It is difficult to manage the local problems by
central and state government. So the concept of local self government was
introduced. Understanding the local requirement, to fulfill them properly,
and where local people co-operate with local administrator is known as
local self-government. So, the organization set up by law to carry out
administration is known as 'Local Self Government Organization'. Such
local self-government have been established to make the administration
easy scientific and simple and more so to involve the local resident.
 This type of government solved local problems very fast and very
effectively. 
 Local people are directly involved to solve the problems, because they
know their real needs.
 This is the first step of a democratic country and it is like a school of
democracy. Local Self Government:

Meaning of Local Self Government

Local self-government organisation can be broadly classified into village

area and urban area. In village area it is known as Gram Panchayat, Taluka
Panchayat and District Panchayat. Where as in urban area is known as
Municipality and Municipal Corporation.
According to rules the residential area where population is more then
15,000 and less than 5 lakhs are known as towns and in this type of towns
there exist municipality. The area which have population is more than 5
lakhs known as 'cities' and in this type of city the cal self-government
known as Municipal Corporation. The notified area council is constituted in
a rapidly growing area which does not fit in the definition of municipality.
The cantonment board is a creation of the central government and
functions under the ministry of defense. 

Importance of Local Self Government

1) Decentralization of Power :
The success of democracy depends on the decentralization of power.
Through this system of local self-government, people can obtain their
democratic rights. Through this system, power can be properly
decentralized and every individual can get the scope to develop his or her
personality fully and properly.

2) Democratic environment :
The local self-governmental institutions are the best centers for imparting
democratic thoughts and education. People prefer democracy because they
want to live in an environment of equality and liberty.

3) Reduce heavy responsibility :

The local self-government creates that scope for enjoying democracy. It is
through these local self-governments that the local problems can be
considered and solved adequately and properly. It also reduces the heavy
responsibilities of the central and the state governments and establishes
democracy in a wider context.

4) Knowledge of local problems :

Since the members of the local self-government are local people, they can
realize and understand the gravity of local problems more seriously than
the administrators of the State or Central government and can properly
solve them.

5) Corruption free :
In local self government, the members have close and intimate contact with
the local people. Naturally, it remains rather free from corruption and acts
with real social welfare motif.

6) Active participation of People :

To implement various economic planning in local and regional levels the
local self-government institutions are far more helpful than the state or
central government. It also inspires the local people to actively participate
in various governmental activities. It thus, enables the ordinary people to
take part or make active participation in the lowest-level of administration.
Naturally, the political socialization of local people becomes possible.

7) Unites to the local people :

The Local Self-government generally unites the people with democracy and
encourages them to participate in its activities without any bias or
prejudice. Naturally, it can consolidate the political values and faith of
ordinary people and thereby influences the political activities and political
culture of the people.

8) Experiments through local self-government : 

Moreover, both the central and the state governments can make various
administrative experiments through these local self-governments.

9) Conducive for people :

Moreover, the local self-government is conducive to equality and liberty
and the perfect medium for satisfying the need and grievances of the people
at local and regional level. 

Community Development Programme

Post Independence, the first major development programme launched in India
was Community Development Programme, 1952. Core philosophy was overall
development of rural areas and people’s participation.
Key Features
This programme was formulated to provide an administrative framework through
which the government might reach to the district, tehsil / taluka and village level. All
the districts of the country were divided into “Development Blocks” and a “Block
Development Officer (BDO)” was made in charge of each block. Below the BDO
were appointed the workers called Village Level Workers (VLW) who were
responsible to keep in touch with 10-12 villages. So, a nationwide structure was
started to be created. Thousands of BDOs and VLW’s were trained for the job of
carrying out array of government programmes and make it possible to reach the
government to villages. Top authority was “Community Development Organization”
and a Community Development Research Center was created with best academic
brains of the country at that time.
In the first five year plan, the emphasis was on agriculture. The food production
started growing and by the end of first five year plan, the food import decreased
substantially. However, the bad monsoon in the first two three years of second five
year plan the food production again tumbled down and the production was now
around pre-1954 levels.
Restructuring
The community development programme later became overburden and a need to
sharply focus the agriculture was felt. So the first programme which sharply focused
agriculture was launched in 1960-61 and this programme was called “Intensive
Agriculture Development program (IADP)”

1. Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957)

Originally appointed by the Government of India to examine the working of
two of its earlier programs, the committee submitted its report in
November 1957, in which the term ‘democratic decentralization‘ first
appears.

The important recommendations are:

 Establishment of a three-tier Panchayati Raj system – gram

panchayat at village level (direct election), panchayat Samiti at
the block level and Zila Parishad at the district level (indirect
election).
 District Collector to be the chairman of Zila Parishad.
 Transfer of resources and power to these bodies to be ensured.
The existent National Development Council accepted the
recommendations. However, it did not insist on a single, definite pattern to
be followed in the establishment of these institutions. Rather, it allowed the
states to devise their own patterns, while the broad fundamentals were to
be the same throughout the country.

Rajasthan (1959) adopted the system first, followed by Andhra Pradesh in

the same year. Some states even went ahead to create four-tier systems
and Nyaya panchayats, which served as judicial bodies.

2. Ashok Mehta Committee (1977-1978)

The committee was constituted by the Janata government of the time to
study Panchayati Raj institutions. Out of a total of 132 recommendations
made by it, the most important ones are:

 Three-tier system to be replaced by a two-tier system.

 Political parties should participate at all levels in the elections.
 Compulsory powers of taxation to be given to these institutions.
 Zila Parishad to be made responsible for planning at the state
level.
 A minister for Panchayati Raj to be appointed by the state
council of ministers.
 Constitutional recognition to be given to Panchayati Raj
institutions.

Unfortunately, the Janata government collapsed before action could be

taken on these recommendations.