Ghatak, Maitreesh 
ORCID: 0000-0002-0126-0897 and Ghatak, Maitreya
(2002)
Recent reforms in the Panchayat system in west Bengal: toward greater participatory governance.
Economic and Political Weekly, 37 (1).
ISSN 0012-9976
Abstract
The experience of West Bengal under the panchayat system stands in sharp contrast with that of other states and, together with land reform, it has been credited for playing an important role in the impressive economic turnaround of the state since the mid 1980s. West Bengal is the first and the only major state to have had timely panchayat elections on a party basis regularly every five years since 1978. However, despite its pioneering status in terms of reforms of the panchayat system, West Bengal lags behind several other states today in terms of devolution of power, finances and functions to the panchayat. Also, the extent of people's participation in the planning process is significantly less compared to that in Kerala. This paper studies a particular component of a set of recently introduced reforms of the panchayat system in West Bengal that is aimed precisely at addressing this concern - the introduction of mandatory village constituency (gram sansad) meetings.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.epw.in/ |
| Additional Information: | © 2002 Economic and political weekly |
| Divisions: | Economics STICERD |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JC Political theory H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jun 2008 15:59 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Sep 2024 21:36 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/5864 |
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