Chhattisgarh - Government
The Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha (Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly) consists of 90 members (MLA), and these members are elected for five years. The Cabinet of the state of chhattisgarh forms the executive branch of the Government of chhattisgarh. The Government of Chhattisgarh consists of 13 cabinet ministers. There are two types of the minister in state government, which is determined by the position or grade. The superior or primary being Cabinet Ministers "Cabinet Minister" and the junior or secondary being "minister of State". Cabinet Minister is the main in-charge of a ministry. A cabinet minister may also hold additional charges of other Ministries if no other cabinet ministers are appointed to take charge of that ministries. All Cabinet members are mandated by the constitution to be members of the Vidhan Sabha of chhattisgarh.
Having a new state has had the opportunity to establish a new capital. Chhattisgarh established a new city named Raipur in Chhattisgarh, which will be one of the most convenient and most beautiful cities of the world. Naya Raipur is located about 24 km southeast of Raipur and is India's sixth planned city after Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat), Chandigarh (Punjab and Haryana), and Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra). It is to be a perfect example of urban development. Where there will be a shared landscape of ancient and novelty, culture and research, development and environmental protection. This city will present an ideal for new jobs and a refreshing life.
Chhattisgarh's new capital Naya Raipur will be renamed as Atal Nagar in memory of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Chhattisgarh's chief minister, Raman Singh, announced the renaming of the smart city in a cabinet meeting held on August 21, 2018 in Raipur.
Chhattisgarh has 27 administrative districts. Out of these two new districts (Bijapur and Naryanpur) were carved out on May 11, and 9 new districts on Jan 1, 2012. The new districts have been created by carving out the existing districts to facilitate more targeted, focused, and closer administration. These districts have been named Sukma, Kondagaon, Balod, Bemetara, Baloda Bazar, Gariaband, Mungeli, Surajpur, and Balrampur.
Many institutions and administrative departments have been working in rural Chhattisgarh since Independence. There are basically two main types of institutions in rural Chhattisgarh; those that work for change and development, and those that administer and implement the law of the land. Apart from the various Government departments that function in the State, the Panchayati Raj institutions, some non-governmental organisations, and self-help groups are important instruments of change.
The Panchayat Raj institutions are among the predominant institutions that are active in Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh has 9,139 Gram Panchayats, 146 Janpad Panchayats (at the Block level), and 16 Zila Panchayats. The Panchayati Raj system covers around 20,000 villages in the State and has a total of 1,36,393 representatives. Altogether, close to 1.5 lakh people in rural Chhattisgarh are involved in the strengthening of self-government and the democratic process.
The Gram Panchayat is considered to be a Government department, rather than an institution of self-government. About 50 percent of the villages list Panchayats as one among many institutions that are controlled and governed by an agency outside the village. Certain institutions like the Police and the Revenue department are not perceived as functioning or working in the village, but they do exist.
The village community does meet to discuss and resolve mutual disputes and quarrels, but they do not consider these to be Gram Sabha meetings. The Government does not consider these to be legal meetings of the Gram Sabha, because the Panchayat laws stipulate that a certain quorum is needed. The village has its own definition of quorum, and considers the presence of one individual from each family as fulfilling this criterion. In many villages, the Gram Sabha or general assembly is non-functional.
The main difficulty is that the Panchayats have been reduced to mere instruments that implement poverty eradication schemes and other Government programs. The various departments of the Government do not involve the Panchayats in decision-making and the Panchayats are often marginalised. The Gram Sabhas are largely inactive and attendance at their meetings is low. The people have not been able to exercise the powers given to the Gram Sabhas and these bodies are often ineffective and powerless. In some cases this is because the Gram Sabhas are constrained from exercising these powers, because the institutions that exercised them earlier have not handed them over to the Gram Sabhas.
Rural society depends upon several formal and informal institutions to keep alive its traditions, customs and social relations. These institutions play an important role in finalising the rules and regulations that govern the social system. They also help in implementing such rules and they take corrective action whenever there is a violation of the social norms which have been decided by them.
In Chhattisgarh, each tribe and caste group has a different social arrangement, and each tribal or caste grouping considers its society as preeminent8. More than one tribe or caste inhabits most villages. The villages have developed a common society that transcends caste ortribal groupings and coexists with the preeminent societal groupings. The philosophyof maintaining social harmony through cooperation and sharing of power is apparent in Chhattisgarh’s rural society. This philosophy stresses working together, producing together, sharing the produce, and celebrating together. Social life is not individualistic, but collectively experienced, and centred on the group.
Communities have caste or tribal institutions to resolve disputes and direct their affairs. The structure and organisation of these institutions depend on the size of the community and its location. If a village has a particular caste or tribe in majority, it may form a village-level organisation. However, there are other people also living in the village, whose numbers may range from a few people to a substantial number. They may form their own organisations. These are not village-level organisations but usually cover four to 12 villages.
Most villages have a group of people who are responsible for the management of the affairs of the village. Apart from the leader of the village social system, there are others who play an important role in the daily life and needs of a village. They include the sirhas and guniyas (healers), the baigas (priests), the panaras (musicians), manjhi-mukhiya (village headmen or leaders) or the bhatnayaks (as they are called in the Bastar and in some other places), the potters, weavers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shepherds and barbers, among others.
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