ABSTRACT
Genuine democracy would prevail only where people would remain in constant touch with their representatives, monitoring and duly controlling them. Decentralised democracy through Gram Swaraj was a way of checking the absolute power of a centralised state and ensuring individual freedoms. One of the urgent tasks in achieving a deeper democracy in India is to see that all localities – rural and urban – are covered by easily accessible local self-governments. Local self-governments have a greater potential to impart political education, sharpen public awareness and promote consciousness of civic responsibilities. Local economic development will receive more weightage from local self-governments. Local self-governments are likely to be more environment-friendly too, since it is the mega-projects and centralising tendencies in the economy which threaten environment, which are likely to be discouraged by local governments. Economies of scale and agglomeration promote economic centralisation, placing more and more resources at the disposal of the Central and state governments to the detriment of local governments.
