Rajasthan Assembly passes Panchayati Raj amendment bill :

1. The Rajasthan Assembly passed a bill which relaxes the provision "two-child" provision for those aspiring to contest panchayat elections provided one of the children is differently-abled.

2. It also passed an amendment aimed at allowing people suffering from leprosy to contest panchayat elections.

3. The Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2018, was passed by voice vote.

4. The bill aims at deleting a provision under the Act that if a person is suffering from Leprosy, he will be disqualified for contesting panchayat elections.

5. Proposing the amendment, Panchayati Raj Minister said at the time of enactment of the Act, there might have been some valid reasons for making such a provision. However, in the present time, for rehabilitating and bringing the people suffering from Leprosy fully into the mainstream, this provision should be deleted.

6. As per the existing legislation, a person stood disqualified from contesting panchayat elections, if he or she has more than two children. The provision does not provide for any exception for a disabled child.

7. The provisions of the Section 19 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 were amended and the Bill was passed by the House by voice vote.

Panchyati Raj System, Rajasthan :

Panchayats or village assemblies existed in ancient India as self-governing institutions which had distinct and well-defined functions. The institution of Panchayat represented not only the collective will, but also the collective wisdom of the entire rural community. As in other parts of the country, village Panchayats also existed in Rajasthan. British rule introduced a highly decentralized system of administering justice, which changed the situation and the system of village Panchayats suffered a setback. During the time of Viceroy Lord Ripon, there was an attempt to establish local bodies. In Rajasthan, the princely states of Jodhpur, Bharatpur, Jaipur, Sirohi, Udaipur, and Karauli enacted legislations on Panchayats. Bikaner state had its own Gram Panchayat Act much earlier in 1928. Thus, at the time of independence, Panchayats were functioning in some of the erstwhile princely states, while in other states no such institutions existed.

Rajasthan came into existence as a result of the process of integration of about two dozen princely states and chief ships in successive stages starting from the inauguration of the Matsya Union (comprising of the former princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur) and culminating with the merger of Sirohi state in the Rajasthan union. Greater Rajasthan with Jaipur as its capital was inaugurated in March 1949. The final stage in the formation of the present state of Rajasthan was completed in 1956 with the merger of the Part-C state of Ajmer and parts of Bombay and Madhya Pradesh into Rajasthan as a result of the recommendations of the State’s Reorganization Commission, giving the state its present geographical and political identity.

In 1953, the Rajasthan Panchayat Act was enacted and village Panchayats were established throughout the state.

Rajasthan has the distinction of being a pioneer in accepting the scheme of democratic decentralization envisaging a three-tier system of representative bodies at the village, block, and district levels. Th e system later came to be known as Panchayati Raj, which was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 2 October 1959 at Nagour in Rajasthan.

The first elections under the Rajasthan Panchayat Samitis and Zilla Parishads Act, 1959 were held in September-October 1959. With the already existing Panchayats at the village level under the Rajasthan Panchayat Act, 1953, the three-tier scheme of Panchayati Raj began functioning on 2 October 1959.