The High Court on Thursday dismissed two writ petitions clearing the way for the December 20 Zilla Panchayat elections. The State Election Commission is expected to announce the election schedule shortly. However, conducting timely elections to Zilla Panchayats and Village Panchayats is as important as equipping them with substantive powers and functions to allow grassroot democracy to blossom and empower the people to determine their own destiny.
The Panchayats were constituted in Goa post the 73rd Amendment, under the new Goa Panchayati Raj Act (GPRA) in 1994. Although a two tier structure was established no elections or powers were devolved to the panchayats, although 29 powers were designated in the Act. It was only in 1997 that elections were held to 189 village panchayats. However, no powers were devolved to the panchayats. The Zilla Panchayats were constituted only in the year 2000, that too under President’s Rule, six years after the GPRA was passed. Although 25 powers were designated in the GPRA 1994, no powers were devolved to Zilla Panchayats. In 2001, five minor subjects were delegated to the Zilla Panchayats.
The State Governments, whether under the Congress or the BJP have shown their complete unwillingness to devolve funds, functions and functionaries to local governments and utterly failed to empower grassroot democracy. Goa was perhaps the only state in the country, along with erstwhile Pondicherry not to have devolved a single power to panchayats and zilla panchayats. Subsequently, Bihar and Puducherry have devolved powers to local bodies. So Goa remains as the only State which till date has not devolved a single power to local bodies in the entire country.
Whenever Central Commissions have come to the State to assess the extent of devolution of powers to local bodies, the State Governments have shown allocation of some functions (not powers) to local bodies to comply with the Central directives and have managed to get funds. The Task Force on Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) constituted by the Planning Commission, in its December 2001 report stated that Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam Bihar Jharkhand, Gujarat, Pondicherry and Goa had not given a single power, fund or functionary to the local bodies. Whereas Karnataka and Kerala had given all 29 powers to the local bodies as designated in their Panchayati Raj Acts.
As per the Status Of Devolution to PRIs study conducted on behalf of Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in 2015-16, Goa’s aggregate rank was last, among the States in devolution of powers to local bodies. The latest (2024) study done by the Institute of Public Administration New Delhi, on behalf of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, considers five parameters for ranking of States –Framework, Functions, Finances, Functionaries, Capacity Building and Accountability.
In this study, Goa Ranks 21st among the States and Union Territories in terms of devolution index. Goa ranks 28th in terms of functions dimension, 23rd in the Finances Dimension and 18th in the Functionaries Dimension. These rankings are among the bottom 5 among states and union territories. This does not augur well for grassroot democracy in a small state such as Goa.
Devolution of finances would make the Panchayati Raj Institutions autonomous and not politically dependent on the party in power at the State level. In Goa, the reports of the First State Finance Commission (1999), the Second State Finance Commission (2006) and the Third State Finance Commission( 2022), have not been accepted by the governments.
Hence it is seen that State governments in Goa, regardless of the ruling party, have resisted empowerment by ignoring reports of the State Finance Commissions which had recommended continuing 10% tax revenue devolution plus Rs 50 crore annual compensation for GST losses. By contrast, in 1996-97, the Kerala government initiated the “People’s Plan Campaign” and made a policy decision to devolve a substantial portion of the state’s plan funds—specifically 35% to 40% of the state plan outlay—to local self-government institutions. However, in recent years, the percentage of the State Plan Outlay allocated to local bodies has been closer to the range of 25-30%.
Goa as a small state is ideally suited to devolve 3Fs fully. The government has to transfer all 29 Eleventh Schedule functions, devolve untied funds via timely and create a separate Panchayat Cadre to enable autonomous planning like Gram Panchayat Development Plans.
Second, the gram sabhas in Goa, though vibrant, have to be incentivised by devolving planning, social audit and achievement of localized Sustainable Development Goals to boost community-driven decisions.
Third, the process of Capacity building of elected representatives, especially women have to be conducted more robustly through the Goa Institute of Rural Development and Administration via leadership programmes, by getting senior teaching faculty from National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad and SIRDs and practitioners (Award winning Sarpanchas and ZP Chairpersons) from model village panchayats and ZPs from other States.
Fourth, financial autonomy has to be ensured by accepting reports of the Finance Commission and there has to be fixed devolution of finances to the PRIs. Also they have to be encouraged to generate their own-revenue by giving back to them the powers of taxation taken away by the State Governments.
Finally, the State government has to monitor reforms by mandating online audits, citizen feedback, and performance-based incentives to align with national benchmarks such as Viksit Bharat’s Gram Swaraj vision.
When will Goa empower its grassroot democratic institutions?
