Kumarakom Local Administration

The Grama Panchayat controls the local administration of Kumarakom village. The first democratically elected Panchayat assumed office on 17 July 1953. The Communist Party of India (CPI) led it. This village council was in power for ten years and the second Panchayat assumed office on 17 December 1963, under the leadership of the Indian National Congress defeating the CPI in five wards out of eight. The third Panchayat council came into power in 1980 under the leadership of CPI (M). The CPI and CPI (M) captured all the ten seats in 1986. In the fifth Panchayat council also CPI – CPI (M) coalition front got eight seats out of ten. In the year 2000 both the CPI (M) led LDF and Congress led UDF secured 6 seats equally.

The present Panchayat area is divided into 15 wards. The panchayat election held in 2005 favored CPI (M). They captured 11 seats out of 15. The Panchayat members meet at least once in a month.

Till 1996 the village Panchayat had very limited powers and resources. The administration was under bureaucratic control. The Government appointed the Panchayat Executive Officer and other staff and they were under the control of the state department of Panchayat.

The village Panchayat has the authority to levy taxes on buildings, profession and on entertainments. The vehicle tax collected by state government is shared with the Panchayat. The total income of the Panchayat in 1995-96 was Rs. 39,06,976.

With the implementation of Panchayat Raj Act 1994 on the basis of the amendments introduced to the Constitution of India in 1992 the village panchayat became a powerful democratic body. Block Panchayats at the intermediate level and District Panchayat at the district level were also formed with effect from 1st October 1995 after the due process of election conducted by the State Election Commissioner.
New Laws for Local Government

The Kerala Panchayat Raj Act as enacted in 1994 was progressive in nature in many respects when compared to other State enactments. But it was to be further refined and the new Panchayat Raj set up required further strengthening. To make recommendations on these lines the Kerala Government in July 1996 appointed a Committee on Decentralization of Powers with Dr. S.B. Sen from West Bengal as its Chairman. The Committee gave an interim report to the Government in August 1996 and the final report on amendments to the Panchayat Raj and Municipal enactments in 1997. Most of these recommendations were accepted and Acts were amended in 1999. With these amendments the duties and functions of the Local Self-Government Institutions have enlarged and their autonomy is protected.

With the amendments carried out in 1999 in the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, the administrative control of the Government and its functionaries over the Local Self Government Institutions (LSGI) is taken away. The power of the Government to interfere in the administration, to disqualify the members and to dissolve the local governments is removed. The appellate powers are vested in the judicial tribunals. This is very important because different political parties come to power in the State and in the Local Self Government Institutions. If the State Government exercises any control over the Local Self Government Institution administered by a political party different from the one in power at the State, political compulsions may be crept in and the decisions are liable to be taken with partiality and result in political interference. Any decision or action or inaction of a panchayat can be questioned before the Tribunal and the grievance redressed. The Government does not have any authority to sit in judgment over the decisions, actions or omissions of the Local Self Government Institutions. The judicial Tribunals are expected to change the present system drastically.Right to information is a novel idea incorporated in the Act. The transparency in administration will surely bring the corruption to zero level. All decisions are rendered open for the scrutiny of the public.
Citizens’ Charter on the lines of Best Values prevalent in British local bodies is introduced to strengthen the transparency provisions. This will also put a moral obligation on the administrators to render time bound services to the public, as it is their right.

The most important feature of the amendments of 1999 is the creation of the Ombudsman. Now in Kerala we have 1214 local governments of which 991 are Village Panchayats. The Local Self Government Institutions have about 13000 employees as their own staff and about 60000 Government employees have been transferred to their control. This huge administrative set up is to be put under a vigilance machinery to control corruption and other evil elements. When the administrative control of the Government is taken away there shall be a machinery to check and control. Unlike in the Government, the Standing Committee’s powers are wide in terms of administration. One body, the Finance Standing Committee does all taxation, appeal, and collection of money and spending. The elected members’ involvement in day-to-day administration is unlimited and even the payment is authorised by the executive head, viz., the President or the Chairperson. This involvement in the day-to-day administration and in financial matters is a favourable environment for corruption, mal-administration and mis-utilisation of finance. Hence separate and independent quasi-judicial system for adjudication gains importance. For this purpose the law provides for an Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is the first of its kind in the entire country. The members of the Local Self Government Institutions exercise a number of executive powers and on that ground alone there is every chance of some becoming corrupt. The Ombudsman will function as an anti-corruption and public redressal forum.

Face to Face Democracy
Kerala is the only State in the country, which has given utmost importance to the Grama Sabhas (Village Assembly) in the decentralization process. We have constituted Grama Sabha for each and every constituency of the village panchayat/ municipality. In fact Grama Sabha is the general body of the electors’ forum in a ward. Grama Sabha has been given powers to take decisions on the matters assigned to it, oversee the administration of the local government, comment on its activities and induce its decisions, so as to make it just and development oriented. Convening the meetings of the Grama Sabha once in three months in a year is made a mandatory duty of the ward member who is also the convenor of the Grama Sabha. The budget, audit reports etc. of the local government are discussed and commented upon by the Grama Sabha. By strengthening the Grama Sabhas, we have given life to the concept of face-to-face democracy.

Participatory Planning
As per article 273G (a) and 243W (a) (i) of the Constitution of India,Section 175 of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and Section 51 of the Kerala Municipality Act, each local government has the powers, authority and responsibilities to prepare its own annual and long term plans for the economic development and social justice. These draft plans are discussed thoroughly at the Grama Sabha/ Ward Sabha level and additions and modifications are suggested with reference to local needs and resources. Thus plan implementation is made easy and effective. The plans are prepared in the form of viable projects and they are carried out with the Government grants, local governments’ own revenue, public contributions in cash, kind and labor and the available institutional finance. The District Planning Committee integrates the plans at the District level. The State Planning Board gives necessary guidance to the District Planning Committees and the individual local bodies in the preparation and implementation of plan projects. The Kerala’s Peoples Plan Campaign was a good example for defining participatory democracy.

Finance of Local Government
Only the Village Panchayats are given the power of taxation. The establishment cost of the Block and the District Panchayats are met by a non-plan grant-in-aid from the Government. The major taxes levied by Village panchayat are Property Tax, Profession Tax, Entertainment Tax and Advertisement Tax, the last one practically not exploited. The assigned taxes by the State Government consist of Land Revenue and Surcharge on Stamp Duty and the shared tax is the Motor Vehicle Tax. The tax collection and share of taxes and grants from the government for the year 2003-04 of Kumarakom Grama Panchayat is given below

Property Tax (Building Tax) Rs. 918985
Profession Tax Rs 546010
Show Tax Rs 3942
Surcharge on building Tax Rs 626
Surcharge on show Tax Rs 235
Entertainment Tax Rs 4425
Addition Entertainment Tax Rs 2828
License Fees Rs 24972
Grants and Contributions from Government Rs 3380847
Miscellaneous Receipt Rs 33812
Library cess Rs 46318
Plan grant for annual development projects Rs 7000000
Total Rs 11963000

This shows that the fiscal base of the Grama panchayat is quite good. The Kerala Panchayat Raj Act provides for levy of user charges and also availing of institutional finance by Panchayat Raj Institutions.
The Finance Commission recommended one per cent of the net revenue of the State to be devolved to local governments. But the CPI (M) led LDF Government went far beyond and decided to devolve 35 to 40% of the Plan Funds to local governments. The grant-in-aid from Plan Fund to Kumarakom Grama Panchayat for the year 2004-05 is Rs. 71,66,000

The local body wise allocation of grant-in-aid is passed along with the State Budget and is shown in a separate document viz. Appendix IV. It is worth noting that out of the grant-in-aid the percentage of “untied” funds is very high.

Another important feature is that contrary to universal practice, it is the Village panchayat which gets bulk of the grants – nearly 70% of the rural share going to them, with the District panchayat and Block panchayat sharing the remaining 30% almost equally. Yet another special feature of this devolution is the absolutely non-discretionary nature of allocation of funds.

Constitution of the village administration in Kumarakom is as shown in Illustration-A below.

Number of members elected to the village council is 15. Five seats are reserved for women and one for Scheduled Caste as provided in the law. One third of the posts of Panchayat Presidents in the district are also reserved for women by rotation. During 2000-05 the post of President of Kumarakom Panchayat was reserved for women. Out of the fifteen members 11 held by CPI (M) led LDF and 4 by Congress led UDF. The President and Vice-president of Kumarakom Panchayat belong to LDF.

There are 3 Standing Committees also functioning. They are (1) Finance Standing Committee chaired by Vice President. (2) Welfare Standing Committee and (3) Development Standing Committee. Members of the standing committees and their chairmen were elected on the principle of proportional representation and hence both the ruling and the opposition members will get due representation.

The office of the Local Administration is well staffed. The allotted staff strength now is 16. They are Secretary, Head clerk, seven Clerks, Overseer, Village Extension Officer and Lady Village Extension Officer, two Peons and two Sweepers.

The Krishi Bhavan (Village Agriculture Office) headed by an agricultural scientist and extension officers, Government Ayurvedic Dispensary, Government Homoeo Dispensary, Veterinary Dispensary, Health Centers and Primary Schools are under the control of the Panchayat. But the Government pay salary to the staffs in these transferred institutions directly.

The Grama Sabha (the ward-level village assembly of all voters) is the lowest statutorily recognised unit of self-governance. There is legal provision that Grama Sabha should meet every three-months and the developmental works, annual plans, accounts of Panchayat and administration reports should be discussed in the Grama Sabha. If 10% of voters asks, the panchayat president has to call the Grama Sabha. If he fails to do so citizens themselves can convene it and that Grama Sabha too will be legally valid.

In Kumarakom each ward is divided into a number of Neighborhood Groups (NHG) consisting of 40-50 proximate families situated at `shouting distance’. NHG is a platform for all the members – children and adults – a sort of extended family and also a place to practice face-to-face democracy. There are 98 such NHGs in Kumarakom, which act as supporting structure of Grama Sabha.

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