Report of the Team for The Study of Community Projects and National Extension Service Vol. II

Abstract

At the end of March 1956 there were some 1,23,670 Gram Panchayats covering more than half the total number of villages in the country. The second Five-Year Plan envisaged that according to the tentative programmes drawn up, the number of village panchayats will increase to 2,44,564 to cover almost the entire countryside, by the end of 1960-61. All the States except Tripura have legislation to establish statutory panchayats in the rural areas. The progress measured purely in quantitative terms has been more pronounced in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Mysore, Kerala and the erstwhile States of Madhya Bharat and Saurashtra, where almost all villages are served by panchayats.