Who was the Chariman of the Committee which proposed Democratic Decentralisation and Pandhayati Raj?

The correct answer is D) Balwant Rai Mehta. In January 1957 the Government of India set up the Committee on Plan Projects under him to review the Community Development Programme and the National Extension Service. Its report, submitted in November 1957, proposed democratic decentralisation with a three-tier structure: Gram Panchayat at the village level, Panchayat Samiti at the block level and Zila Parishad at the district level.

• A) K.M. Panikkar: A historian and diplomat, he did not chair this committee.
• B) H.N. Kunjru: An economist, he is not associated with the 1957 panchayat report.
• C) Mahatma Gandhi: He championed Gram Swaraj as an idea, but he never chaired any government committee.

The core concept is the evolution of local self-government from the Balwant Rai Mehta report through the Ashok Mehta Committee (1978) to the 73rd Amendment (1992), which gave Panchayati Raj constitutional status under Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule. This is a standard GS-II Polity and Governance Mains theme on decentralisation and its gaps in devolving funds, functions and functionaries.

Trap: Aspirants confuse the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee with the Ashok Mehta Committee, or they pick Gandhi because of his association with Gram Swaraj.