The Grama Sabha is the grass root level democratic institution in each Village Panchayat. A vibrant Grama Sabha is essential for the effective functioning of Village Panchayats by promoting transparency and accountability in administration, enhancing public participation in the planning and implementation of schemes and in the choice of beneficiaries, and paving the way for social audit. The Government have ordered the conduct of Grama Sabha meetings a minimum of four times a year i.e. on 26th January, 1st May, 15th August and 2nd October.
In order to streamline the procedure for the conduct of Grama Sabha, this Government brought out suitable amendments to the Tamil Nadu Grama Sabha (Quorum and Procedure for convening and conducting of meetings) Rules, 1998 vide G.O.Ms No. 130 RD & PR (C4) Department dated 25.9.2006 and specified that the Grama Sabha shall meet in each of the Village Panchayat wards by rotation. Since a quorum of 10% of the voters was unattainable and unwieldy for the bigger Village Panchayats, a reduced quorum based on the population of Village Panchayats has been prescribed as shown in Table 4.
Table-4
Revised Quorum for Grama Sabhas
1 |
Upto 500 |
50 |
2 |
501-3,000 |
100 |
3 |
3,001-10,000 |
200 |
4 |
Above 10,000 |
300 |
It has also been specified that out of the quorum, at least 1/3rd shall be women and the number of SC/ST participants shall bear the same proportion to the quorum as the population of SCs / STs bears to the total population of the Village Panchayat. Recording of Grama Sabha attendance and proceedings through proper registers and keeping photographic record have been made mandatory for the conduct of Grama Sabhas.
It has been decided to make the Grama Sabha a forum for the conduct of Social Audit of all schemes for the welfare of the people.
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