Performance of the Gram Panchayats of Selected Blocks in Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Panchayati Raj Institutions that work as grass root units of decentralized democratic self-government have been considered as an instrument of socio-economic transformation in rural India. Involvement of people at the grass-roots level is the most important means of bringing about socio-economic development. The objectives of the study: Assess the performance of the Gram Panchayats in terms of governance, resource mobilization and service delivery. Analyse the capacity of the Gram Panchayats presidents. Identify the factors influencing the performance of the Gram Panchayats and determine the challenges faced by the Gram Panchayats and presidents. Coimbatore district was selected for the study. Three blocks has chosen for the study namely Karamadi block, Periyanakkanpalayam block and Thondamuthur block. Total number of Gram Panchayat was 36 Gram Panchayats. Multi-cluster sampling method was adopted for the study.Total sample size is 36 ex-presidents and 360 villagers from each Gram Panchayats. Through questionnaire data was collected from ex-presidents and through interview schedule data was collected from villagers. Survey method was used for data collection. Data were carefully scrutinize and analysed with percentage and SPSS analysis. Findings of the study: Age and educational qualification statistically significant at 0.01 per cent level of significance with leadership qualities of Gram Panchayat presidents. Variable presidents gender is statistically significant at 0.05 per cent level of significance with leadership qualities of Gram Panchayat presidents. Age, gender and education qualification of the presidents of three blocks were founded at 0.01 per cent level of statistical significance. Annual income of the presidents is founded at 0.05 per cent level of statistically significance with performance of Gram Panchayat Presidents. There is evident association between age,gender, education qualificational and annual income of the presidents with the performance of Gram Panchayat presidents. There is evident a