Panchayat and municipalities should be brought together in the district planning committee, envisaged in the constitution to fight COVID-19. Justify (200 Words)
Refer - Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
· The COVID-19 situation can be tackled except through a measure of cooperation between the Centre and the states, with the Centre acknowledging the need to evolve solutions through a consultative process involving the states.
· The starting point could best be Entry 23 of the Eleventh Schedule that reads, “Health, sanitation, including hospitals, primary health centres and dispensaries” among the list of 29 subjects illustratively set out for devolution to the panchayats, subject to conformity legislation being enacted by state legislatures.
· If the logic of “cooperative federalism” is that states must function not as implementation arms of the central government but as autonomous units within the federation, then panchayats too must be conceived not as an extension of state governments but as “units of self-government”.
· A principal reason for Kerala’s amazing performance in “flattening the curve” is their robust system of effective devolution that has enabled the Kudumbashree programme to function in association with the panchayats.
· Indeed, unless cooperative federalism is extended to the third tier of government, little will be achieved as it is at the grassroots that the campaign has to be planned and implemented.
· They constitute the largest body of democratically elected women in the world. About a lakh of them are office-bearers in their respective panchayats and municipalities.
· The most important requirement is planning to receive the migrant labour influx, including testing, quarantine, isolation, social distancing to the extent possible, and ensuring that all without exception are fed and housed and receive the monetary grants that are essential to keep body and soul together.
· Planning for withstanding the ingress of COVID-19 requires the full deployment of the mechanisms for district planning envisaged in Article 243 ZD involving all three tiers of the panchayats and the municipalities brought together in the district planning committee.
vivek attri 5 years
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try to include about Kerala's example, Kudumbashree and provide the reasons why panachayats and municipalities should be involved. Keep Writing.
Aradhana Tiwari 5 years
Article 243G - provides that state legislatures “may, by law, endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self-government”.
The entire governing establishment in the Centre and the states needs to wake up to the huge potential of local self-government to fight COVID-19.
Planning for withstanding the ingress of COVID-19 requires the full deployment of the mechanisms for district planning envisaged in Article 243 ZD involving all three tiers of the panchayats and the municipalities brought together in the district planning committee.
This means state governments cannot and must not treat panchayats as extensions of the state government but as “institutions of (local) self-government”.
If the logic of “cooperative federalism” is that states must function not as implementation arms of the central government but as autonomous units within the federation, then panchayats too must be conceived not as an extension of state governments but as “units of self-government”.
It is thus that panchayats need to be brought into the three-tier devolution system envisaged in the Constitution: Centre-State-Panchayats (and municipalities).
>>> Way forward :
Indeed, unless cooperative federalism is extended to the third tier of government, little will be achieved as it is at the grassroots that the campaign has to be planned and implemented.
It may also be specially noted that until there is the full resumption of normal economic activity, there is going to be need to provide free or heavily subsidised food to millions of villagers, including repatriated migrant labour.
Relying exclusively on the local bureaucracy for last mile delivery has been the bane of administration.
At the village and neighbourhood levels, it is essential to involve the gram sabhas, gram sansads and ward sabhas. Only thus can the war on COVID-19 be made a people’s movement; only thus in a country as huge and populous as ours can we succeed.
>>> Conclusion :
It must be noted that ,humanitarian face of the battle is the reflection of the face of the people in the panchayats and municipalities
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try to include about Kerala's example, Kudumbashree and provide the reasons why panachayats and municipalities should be involved. Keep Writing.
