ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF COMMITTEES OF LSGIS

Funding Agency: Decentralization Support Programme, Department of Local Self Government, Kerala

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments paved the way for a well defined and strong local self government system with decentralized administration. A three tier system of rural local governmental system and two levels of urban local governance has been installed by the Kerala Government as part of this Amendment. Powers and functions are assigned to each tier and level for better implementation of them to attain local development with the active participation and involvement of local people. It is a fact that dreams of this great idea have not been completely fulfilled even after ten years of its functioning. Many factors contributed to the weak performance of the local bodies and it is very important to identify those factors and solve problems with a view to strengthen the local bodies and bring development and prosperity from the grass roots onwards.

In order to ease the workload of the Panchayat Committees and Municipal/Corporation Councils, statutory committees like Standing Committees, Steering Committees, Functional Committees, and Joint Committees have been constituted in terms of provisions in the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and Kerala Municipality Act. There are lots of powers and functions which are expected to be carried out by these Committees on various subjects. The Act has not specifically mentioned the extent of activity under each subject allotted to each Committee. The aim of this initiative is to clear the different functions and activities associated with the subjects assigned to different Committees of local bodies. Major end of the study is to define the roles, responsibilities, functions and procedures for the effective functioning of the committees of Local Self Government Institutions and at the same time it targets the strengthening of these committees in order to reach larger development goals.

The present project has been taken up as a Technical Assistance Programme under the Decentralization Support Programme, Kerala to define the roles, functions, procedures and responsibilities of Statutory and non Statutory Committees of local governments in Kerala. The project was organized by Centre for Environment and Development, Thiruvananthapuram. The project was carried out through brainstorming sessions and interviews with local government functionaries, experts, officials, social activists etc.