The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee was a committee originally appointed by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

on 16 January 1957 to examine the working of the Community Development Programme (2 October 1952) and the National Extension Service and to suggest measures for their better working. The

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of this committee was Balwantrai G Mehta. The committee submitted its report on 24 November 1957 and recommended the establishment of the scheme of 'democratic decentralisation' which finally came to be known as

Panchayati Raj The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical menti ...

. The main aim of

Panchayat raj The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical menti ...

system is to settle the local problems locally and to make the people politically conscious. The report of the Team for the Study of the Community Projects and National Extension Service, Chaired by Balwantray G. Mehta in 1957 is attached here.

Recommendations

# The

village Panchayat Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bo ...

should be constituted with directly elected representatives, whereas the

Panchayat Samiti Panchayat samiti is a rural local government (panchayat) body at the intermediate tehsil (taluka/mandal) level in India. It works for the villages of the tehsil that together are called a development block. It has been said to be the "panchayat ...

and Zilla Parishad should be constituted with indirectly elected members. This is because Panchayat is similar to that of state assembly where there is place for politics where as Samiti and Zilla Parishad members should be more educated and knowledgeable and may not need the majority support. # All planning and developmental activities should be entrusted to these bodies. # The Panchayat Samiti should be the executive body while the Zilla Parishad should be the advisory, coordinating and supervisory body. # The District Collector should be the Chairman of the Zilla Parishad. # There should be a genuine transfer of power and responsibility to these democratic bodies. # Sufficient resources should be transferred to these bodies to enable them to discharge their functions and fulfil their responsibilities. # A system should be evolved to effect further devolution of authority in future. # Irrespective of political parties, Elections has to be constituted for every 5 years in a genuine way. These recommendations were accepted by the National Development Council in January 1958.

References

Government agencies of India Panchayati raj (India) {{India-gov-stub