Panchayat and Rural Development in India

Abstract

The concept of Panchayati Raj is unquestionably Indian in origin. Panchayati Raj bodies, which are genuine and effective democratic decentralized institutions, provide ample opportunities for a large number of rural people to take genuine and effective participation in the development and democratic decision-making process and to infuse in the minds of the rural people a spirit of self help, self dependence and self reliance and to obtain the experience in the art of local self-government. Panchayati Raj institutions have been playing an important role in order to monitor these rural development programmes. These institutions have been helpful in identifying real beneficiaries in order to get maximum benefits out of these schemes. A number of hurdles and constraints and deficiencies are also responsible for failure of these rural development programmes. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine various issues, aspects and dimensions related to Panchayati Raj Institutions in Ghaziabad district of Western Uttar Pradesh. It has been sought to analyze changes in the rural society and its impact on socio-economic transformation due to panchayat, political participation, and political mobilization etc. There are number of factors responsible for created hurdles in performing the role of PRIs. These are castism, groupism and factionalism, which resulting to bitter infightings, allegations and counterallegations, mutual suspicions and rivalries etc.