ROLE OF PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS TOWARDS RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PULWAMA DISTRICT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Abstract

Lot of rural development programmes were carried out by panchayat raj institutions in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir from time to time in order to develop the rural area. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir assures people’s participation in developmental activities and in the local governance institutions with adequate gender, class and caste representation as per the need of the amendment package. But, the level of people’s participation in developmental activities at grassroots level seems to be very low. Moreover, gram panchayats are not adequately accountable to gram Sabha. The idea of participation, as an important part of panchayat raj, has rarely been observed in practice. Against this backdrop, the study is designed to investigate the panchayat representatives in order to understand their role towards implementation of various rural development programmes. An attempt has also been made to fully understand the role of Gram Sabha in panchayati raj system and rural development. A structured interview schedule was administrated for this purpose. Besides, informal discussions and field observations also proved to be helpful in providing inputs to strengthen the arguments in analysis.