Shubhangi Sharma & Shashank Nahar, Law Student at Amity University Rajasthan
ABSTRACT
A system of robust local self-government institutions is necessary to support a democratic form of governance. Institutions of local government give the people the chance to actively and freely engage in the government they create for their own communities. These are essential to encouraging and fostering the people's initiative, independence, and enterprise. Our late Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, said that "local government is and must be the basis of any meaningful system of democracy" .The success of democracy at the top may depend on the strength of its basis from below.
Before the amendments were passed, decentralisation was a policy concern during the colonial period, and for a brief moment, the Constituent Assembly debates in the late 1940s offered the prospect of building an alternative form of government; also, in the post-independence period, representation of the population living in rural areas was very low, and the central government was failing miserably at the local level.
Village local self-government was covered by the 73rd Amendment Act, whereas municipal local government was covered by the 74th Amendment Act. According to the requirements, the Panchayati Raj Institutions will be organised into three levels: village, district, and intermediate. It also provided for reservation of women.
The main objectives of this paper are to use the secondary data and explain the changes that came after the amendment, the differences between the 73rd and 74th amendments, Following that, using descriptive and analytic methodology, an attempt was made to study whether or not this amendment was necessary.
Keywords: Amendments, Municipality, Panchayati Raj, Democracy, Constituent Assembly, Local Self Government, Federal Structure, etc.
