(a) The electoral rolls for all elections – Local, State and National – should be common. The Con provides for separate electoral rolls for Local Governments.
The practice of adopting Assembly El Rolls with the Election Commission of India and State Election Commissions functioning in could be universally adopted by consensus and appropriate incentives and assistance provided to face such uniform procedures.
(b) The State Finance Commission is appointed under Article 243-I and its functions are similar to envisaged under Article 280 for the Central Finance Commission. Making the two Commissions terminus would require amendment to Article 243-I, facilitating appointment of State Finance Commission by the Governor “at the expiry of every fifth year, or at such earlier times as the Governor considered necessary”.
(c) Article 243-K may be amended to extend the power of reserving constituencies for various sections, and the power of delimitation of constituencies to State Election Commissions, to be exercised in consultation with the State Government
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(d) The District tier of Local Governments should represent both rural and urban populations. Article 243(d) needs to be amended facilitating election of a single representative body at the District level for the population – rural or urban. Correspondingly, Article 243-ZD (providing for the Committee for District Planning) becomes redundant.
Conclusion
With the slow progress that is evident in most Indian states on genuine functional devolution, and the many instances where pre-existing inequities and patterns of social exclusion and domination have thwarted even genuine attempts at devolution, some observers have worried that this latest initiative r revitalize local government will also fail.
Clearly institutional reforms initiated through state-level legislative are not irreversible. The declines of panchayats in the 1970s and 1980s in most states, or the failure td sustain the Karnataka reforms, all attest to that.