Constraints of Own Resources Mobilization of Panchayat Samiti (Block) in Howrah District of West Bengal

Abstract

During the time of the Rig-Veda (1200 BC), evidences suggest that self-governing village bodies called 'sabhas' existed. With the passage of time, these bodies became panchayats (council of five persons). Panchayats were functional institutions of grassroots governance in almost every village. In the history of Panchayati Raj in India, on 24 April 1993, the Constitutional (73rd Amendment)  Act 1992 came into force to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions.

Panchayati Raj Institutions – the grass-roots units of self-government – have been proclaimed as the vehicles of socio-economic transformation in rural India. Effective and meaningful functioning of these bodies would depend on active involvement, contribution and participation of its citizens both male and female. The aim of every village being a republic and Panchayats having powers has been translated into reality with the introduction of the three-tier Panchayati Raj system to enlist people's participation in rural reconstruction. In the State level, Panchayats & Rural Development Department of the Government of West Bengal is the Nodal Agency for Implementation, Supervision & Monitoring of the major poverty alleviation programmes in the rural areas of this State and at the District-level, Zilla Parishad is the implementing agency for the same. Under three-tier system of democratic decentralization, Zilla Parishad is the apex body at the district level followed by Panchayat Samitis at Block level as second-tier and Gram Panchayats, the third-tier.

Own revenue of panchayats comes from tax and non-tax resources including voluntary contributions. Panchayats' tax receipt as well as voluntary contributions depend on rural people's willingness and capacity to pay, which in turn depends on people's saving and investment. The performances of panchayats in respect of own resource mobilization has, however, not been encouraging. Many government studies, e.g. Government of India (2001), Report of the Eleventh Finance Commission, reports of the State Finance Commission, Status Reports prepared by Department of Rural Development reveal that the performance of most of the states in India regarding own resources mobilization is poor. In this background the present study  proposes to investigate the trend , pattern and variation and also structural changes of own resources mobilization across panchayat samities in Howrah district  of West Bengal.

The structure of own sources revenue in some of the panchayat samiti in the Howrah District  of West Bengal changed in the favour of non-tax revenue or against own tax revenue. The compound annual growth rates of Percapita own sources revenue of all the panchayat samiti in the Howrah District  of West Bengal is not significant. The tax, non-tax , and total own sources revenue vary across the panchayat samities  and also over years for  particular district. Percapita own sources revenue of panchayat samiti in the  Howrah district of West Bengal belonged to a PCOR group of more than Rs.60  in the recent year(2010-11) where as initially(2006-07) in that PCOR group  there was no any panchayat samiti of the  district  of West Bengal. The panchayat samiti Sankrail  continued to remain having highest own sources revenue(Rs 7160461, Rs 10281295, Rs 18721988) where as the panchayat samiti Bagnan-II continued to remain having lowest  own sources revenue(Rs 842731, Rs 1035136, Rs 1481570)during 2006-07 to 2010-11