Why are administrative and financial powers of elected panchayat pradhans being curtailed in WB? | Explained
In the last week of July 2026, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal stripped the elected presidents of panchayats of their administrative and financial powers. A notification issued by the State government on July 23, 2026, stated that gram panchayat pradhans and mayors will quit their previous posts as registrar of birth and death records. The Suvendu Adhikari government has said that special government officers will now be appointed as registrar for each gram panchayat and municipality to facilitate record keeping of birth and death certificates and administrative workflows.
On the day the notification was issued, State Chief Secretary Manoj Agarwal held a press conference and stated that there were irregularities in the issuance of birth certificates during Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Police raided many municipalities and civil organizations and seized birth and death records.
The West Bengal government’s claim for this move was to ensure transparency in public services and stop corruption in the issuance of birth and death certificates. Birth and death certificates have become a controversial issue in the state, especially after the SIR, which resulted in nearly 12% of voters losing their votes in West Bengal. As the newly elected government has decided to make identifying and deporting Bangladeshi infiltrators a priority, authorities having a say over birth and death certificates is of greater interest to the State government than elected public representatives.
Elected panchayat presidents are deprived of their financial powers
On July 26, the State Assembly passed the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Saturday. The West Bengal Panchayat (Second Amendment) has passed the Bill 2026, which deprives the elected representatives of the financial powers of the panchayats.
The legislation seeks to amend various provisions of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973; Section 6 transfers check signing and financial payment rights from elected gram pradhans to panchayat secretaries, administrative assistants and block development officers. The bill’s statement of objects and reasons stated that the legislation has been introduced to ensure stability of panchayat bodies in a time-bound manner for delivery of services to the public at large.
Participating in the discussion on the bill, Panchayat Affairs and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh said that the bill is not intended to restrict the constitutional powers of elected panchayat presidents.
“Rather, it aims to reduce the power of the commission against corruption and rural civil services. From now on, the elected panchayat presidents will only approve any proposal. But the bill (financial bills/cheques) will be approved and approved by the bureaucrats,” he said.
The State Panchayat Minister alleged that in many cases pradhans refused to sign work-related documents due to issues related to claims of ‘deduction of money’ (commission). He stated that the purpose of the change is to prevent such irregularities. Mr. Ghosh claimed that among all the States in the country, it is only in West Bengal that panchayat pradhans have such financial power and that economic interests are a major factor behind the violence witnessed during panchayat elections.
World Bank among the first countries to have a three-tier panchayat system
West Bengal was among the first states in the country to implement the three-tier panchayat system. Almost two decades before the 73rd Constitutional Amendment of 1993, which formally gave constitutional status to the panchayati raj system in rural India and established a uniform three-tier local government structure, West Bengal had passed a panchayat law in 1973 and the first panchayat elections were held in June 1978, allowing political parties to formally contest at the local level. The system has been hailed as a decentralized model of local self-government in which panchayats are considered an extension of the State. Thanks to the welfare programs offered at the panchayat level, gram panchayat members and pradhans have gained immense power. Control over local panchayats meant control over the resources of the State.
Corruption and violence at panchayat level
With panchayats playing an important role in the delivery of public services, corruption and violence gradually emerged. The last panchayat elections in West Bengal in 2023 witnessed widespread violence with inter-party and intra-party clashes resulting in over 50 deaths. Previous elections during the Trinamool Congress and Left Front regimes also witnessed large-scale violence. Control over local resources and domination of area by retaining power in panchayats had become the hallmark of rural societies in West Bengal.
Control over resources led to corruption at the panchayat level. The collapse of the Trinamool Congress regime had brought to the fore widespread corruption at the panchayat level. Gram pradhan and elected panchayat representatives were demanding ‘cut money’ or commission for the delivery of services. Widespread public anger towards pradhans and elected panchayat members after the regime change reflected corruption and monotony in the system.
Policies behind restricting powers
After the BJP’s victory in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, the space occupied by the Opposition, especially the Trinamool Congress, collapsed. 20 out of 28 MLAs joined the nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and 65 out of 80 MLAs left and claimed to be in the real Trinamool Congress.
What is largely unaffected by the defections is the three-tier panchayat system in West Bengal, comprising 3,317 gram panchayats with 63,000 elected members, 341 panchayat samitis with over 9,700 elected members and around 20 zilla congregations with 970 members. Almost 90% of the representatives elected in three-tier panchayats are Trinamool Congress representatives. A significant majority of them have abandoned their responsibilities because they fear public outrage and that they may be accused in corruption cases.
The next panchayat election will be held in 2028. Therefore, the BJP government decided to allocate administrative and financial powers to officials instead of elected gram panchayat presidents; This is a move that will increase bureaucratic interference in the decentralized local self-government model.
It was published – 28 July 2026 11:13 IST
