Introduction to Goa Gram Panchayats

The Vedas (Regveda in particular) reveal that the ancient Hindus used to lead a corporate life. “In the early Vedic, Epic, and Pali literature, we find guilds or local bodies emerging as fully developed institutions with a distinct organization of their own and commanding a position of importance and influence in the state.” (R.K.Masani – “Evolution of Local Self Government in Bombay”, Diocesan Press, Madras, 1929.)

K.P. Jayaswal, an eminent historian writes that “the national life and activities in the earliest time on record was expressed through popular assemblies and institutions. The great institution of this nature was the samiti of our Vedic fore fathers.” The exact nature of these institutions, as also their functions and designations are a point of controversy among scholars, but as H.D. Malaviya points out, “gramik, gopa, sabha,samiti, Panchayat” to which repeated references occur in the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Hindu scriptures points to the existence of a collective life in the village which was more or less independent of central influence.”

According to V.T. Gune, “centuries before the Portuguese came to Goa this territory enjoyed a tradition of autonomous village administration. Local village organization have been refered to in Portuguese correspondence as “Gauncarias or Gaonkaria, Camara Agraria (Agricultural community) and communidades or Communities.”

According to S.R. Phal, the communidades were something more than mere farming associations. They were a separate socio-economic entity with a distinct legal personality and exercised civil, municipal and judicial powers. They met the expenses of religious ceremonies, looked after public assistance and education and settled all types of disputes and punished offences committed within their boundaries.

In 1947, when the country became free, the Constituent Assembly undertook the exercise of framing a new constitution for the free country. To the utter surprise and disappointment of everyone, the draft constitution did not make even a remote reference to the village “Panchayats”. In the debates in the Constituent Assembly on the village, Dr. B. Ambedkar Chairman of the Committee which drafted the Constitution said that “I hold that these village republics have been the ruination of India. I am therefore, surprised that those who condemn provincialism and communalism should come forward as Champion of the village. What is the village, but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and communalism. I am glad that the Draft Constitution had discarded the village and adopted the individual as its unit.

 This serious omission let loose a spate of bitter criticism and condemnation. Most of the members, who participated in the debate, criticized Dr. Ambedkar for not giving any importance or place to the village in the constitution. After a good deal of thought and discussion, K. Santhanam moved a resolution for the inclusion of “panchayats” in the Constitution and it was accepted by an over-whelming majority. Thus Article 40 came to be incorporated in the constitution of India which reads:

“The state shall take steps to organize village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self government.”

The inclusion of the panchayat in the constitution gave a new push to the growth of this institution. Almost all the state governments enacted the Panchayat Acts afresh, incorporating in them the democratic spirit of the new age.

Reconstruction of rural local self-government in the Post-Independence period owed a great deal to the demands made by the Five Year Plans. The First Five Year Plan stated that, “The Constitution has provided for democratic institutions at the centre and in the states, but so long as local self-governing institutions arenot conceived as parts of the same organic constitutional and administrative frame-work, the structure of democratic government will remain incomplete.” The Second Five Year Plan had this to say on the subject of local self government: At the stage of development which local self governing institutions have reached, programmes for local development may be best conceived of as joint enterprises to be carried out in close co-operation by the agencies of the State Government and the representatives of the people elected to local self governing institutions. The subsequent Five Year Plans, which aimed at the achievement of a “good life” for every citizen as the ultimate goal of a socialist society, has similarly commented on the significance of local governing institutions. These plans have admitted that the key to the success of social welfare programmes lies in the strengthening of local self-governing institutions.

 After liberation of Goa, Daman and Diu a one tier Panchayat Raj system was introduced, whereby there was only one unit of democratic decentralization operating at the village level, called the Gram panchayat (the village panchayat). There was another body called the Gram Sabha, the general assembly, comprising of all adult residents whose name figure in the electoral rolls of the village. The Goa Daman and Diu Village Panchayats Regulations 1962 and the rules made from time to time lay down the powers and functions of the Gram Panchayats and Gram Sabhas. Within the structure of Gram Panchayats, provision was made to appoint Committees called Village Panchayat Committees to assist the panchayats in their administrative work. At Block level, there was a Block Advisory Committee (B.A.C.), constituted by the government by issuing a special order, for the purpose of advising the Block Administration on matters of planning of schemes, their location and their execution. The Block Advisory Committee was constituted of both elected members like M.P’s, M.L.A’s, Sarpanchas, and nominated members viz., government officials and experts.

The Goa , Daman and Diu Village Panchayat Regulations and rules were replaced by the Goa Panchayat Raj Act in 1994 after the 73^rd Amendment to the Constitution of India.

(Excerpts from the book “Gram-Panchayats In Goa” by Dr. Tanaji Halarnkar)