Balwant Rai Mehta Committee

The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee was a committee appointed by the Government of India in January 1957 to examine the working of the Community Development Programme(1952) and the National Extension Service(1953) and to suggest measures for their better working.

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

Recommendations

The specific recommendations of the committee are:

1. Establishment of a 3-tier Panchayati Raj system-Gram Panchayat at the village level, Panchayat Samiti at the block level, and Zila Parishad at the district level.
2. The village Panchayat should be constituted with directly elected representatives, whereas the Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad should be constituted with indirectly elected members.
3. All planning and developmental activities should be entrusted to these bodies.
4. The Panchayat Samiti should be the executive body while the Zila Parishad should be the advisory, coordinating and supervisory body.
5. The District Collector should be the Chairman of the Zila Parishad.
6. There should be a genuine transfer of power and responsibility to these democratic bodies.
7. Sufficient resources should be transferred to these bodies to enable them to discharge their functions and fulfil their responsibilities.
8. A system should be evolved to effect further devolution of authority in future.

These recommendations were accepted by the National Development Council in January 1958.