District Setup

District Administration of Cooch Behar

Institutional Development of Panchayat Raj Institutions in Cooch Behar

Cooch Behar district has 128 nos. Gram Panchayats, 12 nos. of Panchayat Samities and one Zilla Parishad. All these as institutions of local self Govt. are functioning successfully in the district as per provision of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1975 under the care, guidance and assistance of the P&RD Department.

The provisions with regard to holding of statutory meetings like Gram Sansad and Gram Sabhas are being held on regular basis on stipulated months of the year. The participations of the people in these meetings have increased over the years. At the block level and the district level the Block Samsad and Zilla Samsad meetings are being held and monitored regularly by P&RD Deptt.

It is a fact that the people of this district have shown enough political maturity by their massive participation in the periodic Panchayat Election. They actively participate in Gram Samsad meetings and during the formation of Gram Unnaya Samities. Yet it is also another fact that very often our Panchayat Samities and more so our Gram Panchayat have shown the tendency to function as a one man show either by the Sabhapati or the Pradhan. Participation in collective decision making is slow and wanting. The imagination of the individual Panchayat often never goes behind the jurisdiction of his/her constituency. Across GPs even across Samsad decisions not to speak of across the blocks schemes are hardly considered and proposed for implementation. Many members still perceives the GP & PS offices as mere construction boards for roads, drains and nalas. Social sector like health and education are still to occupy in the agenda list of the many Panchayats. Hence in the first place one of the important interventions of the district has been to regularly train the Panchayat functionaries for skill and capacity building for better leadership.

Secondly, adequate infrastructural and manpower support has been given to all the official establishments of Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities and the Zilla Parishad. All have pucca buildings, adequate furniture and official equipments including computers, fax machines and even broad band internet connectivity have been allowed up to the GP level. All are well connected and large number of officials and support group staff have been provided.
Thirdly, one of the important achievements in the instructional development has been that all the Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities and including the Zilla Parishad have its approved Bylaws as per provision of the Panchayat Act. This has greatly helped the mobilization of revenue and resources by the Panchayat bodies. Asset creation and maintenance of the institutions have improved with these resources.

Fourthly, the accounts of the Zilla Parishad and all the 12 Panchayat Samities have been fully computerized through the IFMS (Integrated Financial Management System). Likewise as many as 55 nos. of Gram Panchayats have computerized their accounts under the GPMS scheme of P & RD Deptt. All these have helped effective fund utilization, better financial management and ensured transparency in financial transaction to a large extent.

Fifthly, the statutory audits both internal and external of the accounts of these institutions are taking place regularly in the district in spite of limited number of audit officers for internal audits. So far no case of any serious irregularities or misappropriation of Govt. money has come to surface in the reports of these statutory audits.

Sixthly, efforts have been made to achieve the principle of collective responsibility in the functioning of these Panchayat bodies. For this purpose regular meeting of the various Sthayee Samities at the Panchayat Simiti and Zilla Parishad level has been made mandatory and supervised by the district authorities vigorously. Budgets are to be made Sthayee Samiti wise on mandatory basis.

Brief Report on Three-tier Panchayat System

Three-tier Panchayat System has successfully been implemented in West Bengal in the year 1978. The three tiers are namely Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad. The Panchayat body covers only the rural area excluding the urban part. Through this Panchayat System people can participate at grass root level for their own benefit and development. The details of the three-tier system are enunciated below separately in brief.

Gram Panchayat

This is the first tier of the Panchayat System at the grass root level. One Gram Panchayat consists of few Gram Sabhas. So Gram Sabha is the basic unit of G.P. and one Gram Sabha is equivalent to one electoral role part. One Gram Sabha may return one or two members depending upon the total numbers of voters in the electoral roll part. One G.P. can have maximum 25 members out of which 1/3rd is reserved for women. Representative of SC & ST is also reserved as per their proportion of population.
The head of the G.P. is known as Pradhan and his deputy is Upopradhan. Both should be a member of Gram Sabha and get support from majority members. Besides these two, other staffs of Gram Panchayat Office are one Secretary (Clerical staff), one Job Assistant on K.P.S. (Krishi Projukti Sahayak) from Agriculture Department, one Revenue Inspector from Land Records and few chowkidars.
The Pradhan has the power of D.D.O. The Gram Panchayat office is responsible for implementing various socio-economic development schemes at the lowest level (grass root). These schemes are sponsored by both State Govt. and Central Govt. like IRDP, JRY, family planning, social forestry and so on. The programs like poverty alleviation and eradication of illiteracy, crisis management during the natural calamities such as flood, drought, etc. are also been executed by G.P. The GPs are supposed to mobilize resource collecting taxes.

Panchayat Samity

Panchayat Samity is the second tier of Panchayat system. The jurisdiction of a Panchayat Samity is one Block Development Office area. Panchayat Samity consists of several GPs. One G.P. may have 2 or 3 members for P.S. depending upon the total number of voters of that G.P. Women members representation should not be less than 1/3rd of the total seats and members from SC & ST gets the requisite reservation in the Panchayat Samity.
The Panchayat Samity is headed by “Sabhapati” and assisted by “Sahasabhapati”. They must be the member of Panchayat Samity and elected by the majority members. Panchayat Samity is assisted by the many clerical staffs and Extension Officers of Block Development Office. B.D.O. is the Executive Officer of Panchayat Samity by virtue of its post.
All development schemes at block level are planned and executed by the Panchayat Samity with the help of B.D.O. Sabhapati does not have the power of D.D.O. Block Development O fficer does the function of D.D.O. in the capacity of Executive Officer of Panchayat Samity. Panchayat Samity does the coordination between Zilla Parishad and Gram Panchayat. One of the major work of Panchayat Samity is preparing the Block Plan for various department’s developmental schemes approved through Block Planning Committee of which Sabhapati is the Chairman and later on monitoring the implementation of those schemes.

Zilla Parishad

Zilla Parishad is the 3rd and top tier of Panchayat system. Jurisdiction of Zilla Parishad is rural part of a whole district. Each block returns two members for Zilla Parishad. For Zilla Parishad also at least 1/3rd members must be from women and requisite number of SC & ST members as per their proportion of population. All the M.L.A. and M.P.s of the district are ex-officio members of Zilla Parishad.
The Zilla Parishad body is formed with the “Sabhadhipati” as the head, “Saha Sabhadhipati” and few “Karmadhaksha” from the elected Zilla Parishad members. The District Magistrate is the Executive Officer who has the authority of D.D.O. functioning. One Addl. Executive Officer of the rank of A.D.M., one Secretary from senior WBCS(Ex.), one Accounts Officer from West Bengal Audit Accounts Service are deputed at Zilla Parishad helping administrative functioning. The Zilla Parishad has an Engineering wing headed by District Engineer of the rank of Executive Engineer and several sub-assistant Engineer to carry various construction works.
Zilla Parishad have the responsibility of implementing various developmental schemes with the close coordination with Panchayat Samity and Gram panchayat. Sabhadhipati is the Chairman for all District level committee meant for supervision  and monitoring of various State Govt. and Central Govt. sponsored projects. Sabhadhipati is the Chairman of District Planning Committee which approves the District Plan and send to Development & Planning Department for allocation of budget.

Apart from these three tiers, the District Magistrate has a Panchayat section headed by the District Panchayat Officer which monitors the functioning of G.P. and Panchayat Samity. This office does the liaison with the Panchayat bodies and Directorate of Panchayat on various Government orders, notifications, etc.. This office has one staff at block level known as Extension Officer of Panchayat who helps the Panchayat section in communicating with the Panchayat bodies.