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SAI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

SESSION 2020-21

CLASS-X

POLITICAL SCIENCE-CH-2-FEDERALISM

Lesson Notes

SUB-TOPIC-5

Sub-Topic Notes
Local Self Panchayati Raj System
Government
pg-24,25,26 Rural local government is popularly known as Panchayati Raj. Each village,
or a group of villages in some States, has a gram panchayat. This is a
council consisting of several ward members, often called panch, and a
president or sarpanch. They are directly elected by all the adult population
living in a village or ward. Gram Panchayat is the decision-making body for
the entire village.

The Panchayat works under the overall supervision of the Gram Sabha. All
the voters in the village are its members. It has to meet at least twice or
thrice in a year to approve the annual budget of the gram panchayat and to
review the performance of the Gram Panchayat.
When Gram Panchayat are grouped together, they form a Panchayat
Samiti or Block or Mandal. The members of Panchayat Samiti
representative are elected by all the Panchayat members in that area.
All the Panchayat Samitis or Mandals in a district together constitute
the Zilla (district) Parishad. Members of the Lok Sabha, MLAs of the
district, some other officials of other district-level bodies are the members of
Zilla Parishad.

Urban Government-Municipalities
As Gram Panchayat is for Rural areas, similarly we have Municipalities for
urban areas. Big cities are constituted into Municipal Corporations. Both
Municipalities and Municipal Corporations are controlled by elected bodies
consisting of people’s representatives. The Municipal Chairperson is the
political head of the Municipality. In a Municipal Corporation such an officer
is called the mayor.
Merits and Demerits of Local Self Government:

This new system of local government is the largest experiment in democracy
conducted anywhere in the world.