State of Panchayati Raj In Manipur
- Part 2 -

G S Oinam *

Annual Report

State government prepares an annual administrative report in which Panchayat matters are also included. However, no separate state of Panchayat report is published. State government has informed that the preparation of annual state of Panchayat report is progress.

Table-1. Nomenclatures used for different tiers of Panchayat

Level of Panchayat	Name used	Name of Panchayat
District Panchayat	Zilla Parishad	Adhyakshya (elected from among Z.P. members )
Village Panchayat	Gram Panchayat	Pradhan

Table -2. Number of Panchayats at each level

1. Zilla Parishads	4
2. Gram Panchayats	165
Total	169

Table-3. Number of elected representatives at each level ( to be check )
A. Zilla Parishad

	General	SC	ST	Women	Total
Total No.	57	2	2	22	61
Percentage	93.44	3.28	3.28	36.06	100

B. Gram Panchayat

	General	SC	ST	Women	Total
Total No.	1627	41	39	859	1707
Percentage	95.31	2.40	2.29	51.28	100

Finance (Fund)

Gram Panchayats and Zilla Parishads have been empowering under the Manipur Panchayati Raj Act.!994 to levy toll, cess and fees to mobilize their own resources. However, in reality, the ZPs and GPs do not levy any taxes, fees etc. Grant in aid viz. honorarium/ fix salaries, establishment grants, centrally sponsored schemes and finance commission awards are provided to the PRIs.

The state does not have Panchayat window in the state Budget. There is, however, segregation between hill and valley areas in the budget. None of the valley panchayat do not get backward region grant fund from the central ministry; it was extended by NREGS scheme.

Three hilly Districts namely Tamenglong, Chandel and Churachandpur are covered under BRGF. These districts are non six schedules, co terminus with an autonomous council, but have not conduct elections to them after their terms had lapsed in 1989. Manipur Government has recommended early election of district Council. The councils are, therefore, headed by an administrator, the District collector, till elections are held. NREGA schemes, however, come into effective implementation in the valley Panchayat in Manipur.

Though State has only two tier system of Panchayati Raj, however, the fund distribution for Panchayats in Manipur is like 30% at block administrative Committee,50% at the GP level and 20% at the ZP level. Third, intermediate tier of Panchayat system in Manipur is needed for effective management of 30% fund already sanction at block level and better democratic control by the Panchayat representatives.

NREG schemes, however, come into effective implementation in the valley Panchayat in Manipur since 2008. Though state has only two tier system of Panchayati Raj, however, the fund distribution for Panchayats in Manipur is like 30% at the block Administrative Committee, 50% at the GP level and 20% at the ZP level before the commencement of NREGS.

But after this scheme is being started 50% of the fund is implemented by GP and other 50% is to be implemented by other implementing agencies. Third intermediate tier of Panchayat system in Manipur is needed for effective management of 30% fund already sanction at the block level and better democratic control by the Panchayat representatives.

For NREGS, a total amount of Rs. 4008.9 lakhs were released to the 4 (four) valley districts of Manipur for the year 2008-09. Out of this amount (Rs. 4008.9 lakhs) Rs. 3965.21 lakhs were Central Govt. share and the remaining Rs. 43.69 lakhs were State Govt. share.

A proposal had been made by the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Manipur to the State Planning Dept. for releasing the 1st Installment of the State matching share for the current year so far.

To be continued....

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* The author is a journalist based in New Delhi and contributes regularly to e-pao.net. He can be contacted at gitchandraoinam (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) in
This article was webcasted on February 11th, 2010.

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