ABSTRACT
There were four main objectives implicit in India's situation after independence. Politically, it was to establish a democracy with adult franchise and with complete freedom to exercise the choice of the people; socially, to eliminate the inbuilt discrimination and related restrictions; economically, to establish a system with the State as promoter and as manager of economic development; and administratively, to convert a colonial administration into an instrument of public service. The time of independence for any country would be a time for celebration. It was to be the arrival of long-awaited spring with multitudes of crocuses in the form of ideas aimed at the transformation of society. A major element of the effort launched in the 1990s, and continuing, related to the promotion of decentralization of authority and power, as well as responsibility, to the lower levels that are closer to the clients, or the service receiving public.
