Local Self-governance in Sixth Scheduled Areas of Assam: Constitutional and Political Challenges
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00195561231166361 |
| Author | Partha Pratim Borah,Ankur Jyoti Bhuyan |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Notes |
Local Self-governance
in Sixth Scheduled
Areas of Assam:
Constitutional and
Political Challenges
Partha Pratim Borah1 and Ankur Jyoti Bhuyan2
Introduction
The provision and modus operandi of Scheduled Areas are quintessentially rooted
in the federal spirit of the Indian Constitution. While the arrangements made under
the Fifth and Sixth Schedules appear unique in realising the vision of autonomy or
self-rule in those areas, there seems to be a lacuna in terms of applying the funda-
mental ideals of local self-government or Panchayati Raj in those areas. This has
often created a ‘conundrum of convergence’ between the principles of self-rule
(related to autonomy) and local self-governance (related to Panchayati Raj) in the
Scheduled Areas. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission in its Sixth
Report titled ‘Local governance: An inspiring story into the future’ brings forth
the possibility of local government in areas under the Fifth and Sixth Schedules.
However, while it clearly states that the PESA1 endeavours to extend Panchayat to
the Fifth Scheduled areas, there is no such specic constitutional arrangement made
for areas under the Sixth Schedule. Further, the state government also fails to take
proper measures to implement decentralised local governance in the Sixth Scheduled
Areas. Under such circumstances, understanding the constitutional and empirical
challenges vis-à-vis local-self-governance in the Sixth Scheduled areas of Assam
emerge as an interesting site of research and investigation.
73rd Amendment and the Question of Scheduled Areas
The 73rd Constitutional Amendment of the Indian Constitution was a remarkable
development since it gave a sort of constitutional recognition to the Panchayati
Note
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
69(3) 692–697, 2023
© 2023 IIPA
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/00195561231166361
journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa
1 Department of Sociology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam, India.
2 Department of Political Science, Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University,
Nalbari, Assam, India.
Corresponding author:
Partha Pratim Borah, Department of Sociology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786004, Assam,
India.
E-mail: borah.parthapratim@gmail.com
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