Balwant Rai Mehta Committee

The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee was a committee appointed by the Government of India in January 1957 to examine the working of the Community Development Programme(1952) and the National Extension Service(1953) and to suggest measures for their better working. The Chairman of this committee was Balwantrai G Mehta. The committee submitted its report in November 1957 and recommended the establishment of the scheme of 'democratic decentralisation' which finally came to be known as Panchayati Raj.The main aim of Panchayat raj system is to settle the local problems locally and to make the people politically conscious.

The specific recommendations of the committee are:

These recommendations were accepted by the National Development Council in January 1958.

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