In exercise of the powers
conferred by the Section-146 read with Section 170A, Section 170B and Section
170C of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 (The Bihar Act 6, 2006), as amended
from time to time, the Governor of Bihar is pleased to make the following rules:- (1)
These Rules may be called the
"The Bihar Ward Sabha & Ward Implementation and Management Committee
Conduct of Business Rules, 2017. (2)
It shall extend to whole of the
State of Bihar. (3)
It shall come into force at once. Unless there is anything
repugnant to the subject or context, in these Rules - (a)
"Act" means the Bihar
Panchayat Raj Act, 2006; (b)
"Section" means the
section of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006; (c)
"Government" means the
State Government of Bihar; (d)
"Mukhiya" means a
Mukhiya of the Gram Panchayat elected under the provisions (e)
"Member of Gram Panchayat or
Ward Member" mean member of the Gram Panchayat elected under clause (b) of
sub-section (1) of Section 12 of the Act; (f)
"Gram Sabha" means a
body constituted consisting of persons registered therein the electoral roll
pertaining to any village falling within the territorial area of a Panchayat at
village level; (g)
"Ward Sabha" means a
Ward Sabha constituted under sub-section (1) of section 170 A; (h)
"Ward Sabha Secretary"
means the Secretary of the Ward Sabha selected under sub-rule (4) of rule 3 of
these rules; (i)
"Ward Implementation and
Management Committee" means the Ward Implementation and Management
Committee constituted under Section 170B of the Act; (j)
"Member Secretary"
means Secretary of the Ward Implementation and Management Committee; (k)
"Executive Officer"
means an Executive Officer of the Panchayat Samiti appointed under Section 60
of the Act; (l)
All words and expressions used in
these Rules but not defined shall have the same meaning which is respectively
assigned to them in the Act. (1)
There shall be a Ward Sabha for
each ward or territorial electoral constituency of Gram Panchayat. All persons
registered under the electoral roll of the ward shall be members of the
concerned Ward Sabha. (2)
The Gram Panchayat Member elected
from the ward (Ward Member) shall convene meetings of the Ward Sabha from time
to time for performing functions specified under the Act, but the time interval
between two consecutive meetings of any Ward Sabha shall not exceed three
months. (3)
Meeting of the Ward Sabha shall
be convened regularly at the place as specified under Rule 4. In case the meeting
is not convened by the Ward Member, the Mukhiya or Up-Mukhiya of the Gram
Panchayat, if authorized by the Mukhiya, shall convene the meeting and will
preside over the meeting. If the Mukhiya or Up-Mukhiya also fails to convene
the meeting of Ward Sabha, the matter will be brought to the notice of the
Executive Officer of the concerned Panchayat Samiti, who shall be competent to
direct the Mukhiya/Ward Member to convene meeting of such Ward Sabha at the
earliest. (4)
The Ward Sabha shall select one
member from amongst its members to function as Ward Sabha Secretary, whose
minimum educational qualification will be tenth Class pass. No person from the
family of chairman or any office bearer of Panchayati Raj
Institutions(PRIs)/Gram Katchahry shall be selected as Ward Sabha Secretary.
The main responsibility of Ward Sabha Secretary will be to convene meetings of
Ward Sabha under the direction of the Ward Member, to record proceedings of
meetings and to carry out other responsibilities assigned from time to time by
the Ward Sabha. Meeting of the Ward Sabha
shall be held at the Panchayat Bhawan/Panchayat Sarkar Bhawan or any community
building or at any other convenient public place within the Ward. It shall not
be held at a private building or place. It shall be kept in mind that the place
of meeting shall be open and adequately lighted and be conveniently suited for
sitting of members of Ward Sabha. (1)
A notice containing date, time
and place of meeting, giving therein details of agenda shall be published and
propagated at least 7 days before in the following manner:- (a)
By fixing at one or more
conspicuous visible places of the ward, and (b)
By beating of Drum or Dugdugi or
by announcing of such meeting through loudspeaker in the ward area, or (c)
By informing children at school
during prayer time so that they may give message relating to the meeting of
Ward Sabha to their parents, or (d)
By door to door personal contact
by the Ward Member or the Secretary of the ward, Provided that for special or
emergency requirements, a special meeting may be convened at shorter notice,
but which shall not be less than three days. (e)
Meeting of Ward Sabha will
generally be convened at a convenient time on any day of the week so that women
folk also may easily take part in the meeting after finishing their domestic
chores. (2)
A copy of the notice shall be
served to the concerned Mukhiya and concerned elected members of the PRIs
residing within the Ward. (3)
Gram Panchayat may suggest
suitable dates in advance for convening meetings of Ward Sabhas at least one
month before the scheduled date for meeting of Gram Sabha, so that all Ward
Sabha meetings would have been convened before the meeting of Gram Sabha. The
notice for meetings of Ward Sabha will generally be issued according to the
dates suggested by the Gram Panchayat. Quorum shall be present
with one tenth of the total members of the Ward Sabha or fifty members. If the
quorum is not present on the fixed time of the meeting or if the meeting has
started and attention is drawn towards fall in quorum, then the presiding
officer shall wait for one hour and if the quorum is not present even within
it, the presiding officer shall postpone the meeting to such time and day for
the next week as he may fix. The venue for the meeting to be held for the next
week shall, generally be the same which was fixed for the postponed meeting. If
that venue is not available for any reason, then the Ward Member, as per
provisions under rule 4, may take a decision, on his own discretion, to conduct
the meeting at any other place. Information regarding venue, place and time of
the meeting to be held in the next week shall be given again to all the members
of the Ward Sabha in accordance with rule 5. Quorum for the meeting
after the postponed meeting for want of quorum also shall be one tenth of the
total member of the Ward Sabha or fifty members and the same agenda shall be
considered and disposed of which were to be tabled before the postponed
meeting. Each of the meetings of
the Ward Sabha shall be presided over by the Ward Member. If the Ward Member
fails to come in the meeting due to some reason, the meeting shall be presided
over by such member of Ward Sabha who may be elected, for the purpose, by
majority of votes of the members present in the meeting. Any resolution concerned
with any of the subjects, conferred under the Act to the Ward Sabha shall be
passed by the majority of members present and voting in the meeting of the Ward
Sabha . (1)
In addition to the subjects under
consideration in the meeting under sub section (4) of section 170 A of the Act,
the following subjects may also be included in the agenda of the meeting:- (a)
Confirmation of the proceedings
of the preceding meeting of Ward Sabha; (b)
Compliance of the proposals
considered/passed in the last meeting of the Ward Sabha; (c)
Proposal for action to be taken
by Ward Sabha in discharge of its rights and responsibilities with regard to
formulation, implementation and supervision of different schemes/programmes
assigned to the Ward Sabha by different departments of the Government; (d)
Information regarding subsequent
action taken by Gram Panchayat on the decisions of Ward Sabha; (e)
To arrange cultural festivals and
sports meet to give expression to talents of the people of the locality; (f)
Measures for increasing income of
Gram Panchayat; (g)
Seeking report from Mukhiya of
the Gram Panchayat regarding any specific activity, plan or income and
expenditure concerning the ward; (h)
Audit observations; (i)
Comments on Vigilance Committee
Reports; (j)
Activities and schemes executed
by the Ward Implementation and Management Committee. (2)
Following subjects may also be
discussed in the meeting of Ward Sabha:- (a)
Social Audit.- It shall be an important
responsibility of the Ward Sabha to conduct a social audit of all the
developmental works so far implemented in the ward. Secretary of the Ward Sabha
shall read out in the Ward Sabha details of all the works and work-wise expenditure,
etc, carried out in the ward during last quarter. Besides, discussion shall
also be held on quality of the work executed and physical verification shall
also be caused to be made. If any objection is raised by the members present in
the discussion, then Secretary of the Ward Sabha shall enter the same in the
register and shall inform the Executive Officer of Panchayat Samiti and the
Mukhiya. Action on such objections shall be ensured by the Executive Officer of
Panchayat Samiti and the Mukhiya in accordance with law. A compliance report
shall also be tabled in the next meeting of the Ward Sabha. (b)
Social Harmony.- In meetings of the Ward
Sabha, discussion shall be held regularly on maintaining social cohesion and
communal harmony. (1)
The proceeding of meeting of Ward
Sabha shall be recorded by the Ward Sabha Secretary on the same day. The Ward
Sabha Secretary shall obtain the signatures or thumb impression of the members
present at the meeting in a register maintained for this purpose. The register
shall be maintained in Hindi in Devnagari script. The proceedings shall be
signed by the person presiding over the meeting. All papers/documents related
to Ward Sabha shall be kept in the custody of the Ward Member and he shall be
solely responsible for its security. Records etc. shall in no case be kept with
the Ward Sabha Secretary or any other member of the Ward Sabha. (2)
Copies of such proceedings shall
be forwarded to the concerned Gram Panchayat within 15 days. (3)
It shall be responsibility of the
Mukhiya and the Panchayat Secretary of the Gram Panchayat to place proceedings
of Ward Sabha meetings received from the wards situated in the Gram Panchayat
in the next meeting of Gram Sabha. Gram Sabha shall deliberate upon the recommendations
made in the proceedings of each ward and make recommendations to the Gram
Panchayat for taking appropriate and necessary action in this regard. (4)
The proceedings of Ward Sabha
shall be an integral part of the proceeding of Gram Sabha. (5)
Gram Sabha generally will not
deliberate upon the points concerned with those wards of the Gram Panchayat who
have failed either in conducting the meeting of Ward Sabha on scheduled date or
delayed in sending their proceedings within stipulated period to the Gram Panchayat.
But if the Gram Sabha is of the opinion that discussion upon some
points/schemes related to a specific Ward Sabha is necessary, then the Gram
Sabha may deliberate upon such point/scheme even if no proceeding of the
specific Ward Sabha is available or no mention of such point/scheme is made in
the proceeding available, and make its recommendation to the Gram Panchayat for
taking appropriate action. The order of the business
to be transacted at every general or special meeting shall be decided by the
person presiding over the meeting. If it is not possible to
complete discussion on all the items on the date fixed for the Ward Sabha
meeting, the meeting may be continued on any subsequent day within a fortnight.
The decision of next date of such meeting shall be taken it that very meeting. The person presiding over
the Ward Sabha meeting shall regulate the conduct of business at the meeting
and maintain order. If any member disregards the authority of the presiding
person, or is guilty of obstruction or offensive conduct during the meeting,
the presiding person may ask him to behave properly and on his failure to do so
direct him to withdraw from the meeting. (1) The
Ward Sabha, after fixing priorities, shall send the proposals, passed in the
meeting to the Gram Panchayat and the Secretary of the Gram Panchayat shall
table the same in the very next meeting of the Gram Sabha. (2) The
Gram Sabha shall consider on the priorities fixed by the Ward Sabha. The Gram
Panchayat shall consider the priorities of the proposals passed by the Gram
Sabha while finalizing the selection of developmental schemes of the Gram
Panchayat. (3) Compliance
report, if any, shall be tabled before the next meeting of the Ward Sabha. (4) The
Executive Officer of Panchayat Samiti, the Block Panchayat Raj Officer and
other officers during their inspection of the Gram Panchayat shall review
progress of the compliance. The report of Vigilance
Committee of the concerned ward constituted under rule 18 of the Bihar Gram
Sabha (Coordination of Meeting and Procedure for Conduct) Rules, 2012, whenever
available, shall be placed in the meeting of Ward Sabha and the members will be
apprised of the points mentioned in the Vigilance Committee Report. The Ward
Sabha may request the Gram Panchayat and concerned authorities for taking
follow-up action on the report of the Vigilance Committee concerned with the
ward. (1) A
Ward Implementation and Management Committee shall be constituted by Ward Sabha
from amongst its members for discharge and implementation of general and
financial functions/responsibilities enshrined in the Act. (2) Ward
Implementation and Management Committee shall consist of 7 (seven) members
including the chairman. The Gram Panchayat Member (Ward Member) shall be
ex-officio member and chairman of the Committee. The Panch of Gram Katchahry
elected from the Ward and the Ward Sabha Secretary shall be ex-officio members
of the Committee. Provided that in case of
the post of Ward Member being vacant, the Mukhiya or Up-Mukhiya if authorised
by Mukhiya shall convene the meeting of Ward Sabha. The Ward Sabha shall select
one member from among its members to function as chairman of the Ward Implementation
and Management Committee under purely temporary working arrangement. The
authority of the person chosen as chairman under working arrangement shall
automatically cease after regular election to the post of Ward Member, and the
Ward Member so elected shall immediately start functioning as chairman of the
Ward Implementation and Management Committee. (3) The
remaining members of the Committee shall be selected on the following basis:- (i)
If Scheduled Castes or Scheduled
Tribes families reside in the Ward, at least one member from such families
shall be selected as member of the Committee. (ii)
If any village organisation or
self help group of "Jeevika" is working in the Ward, then one of its
representatives shall be selected as a member of the Committee. (iii)
The Committee shall consist of at
least three women members. (iv)
Not more than one member from a
family shall be selected as member of the Committee. (4) The
Ward Sabha Secretary selected under sub-rule (4) of Rule-3 shall function as
Member Secretary of the Committee. (5) The
tenure of a Ward Implementation and Management Committee shall be for two
years. Members not showing interest in roles/responsibilities of the Committee
or absenting from its three consecutive meetings may be removed from their
membership by a resolution passed by the Ward Sabha. The vacancy caused by such
removal from membership or vacancy caused by resignation or death of any member
shall be filled up by the Ward Sabha by selecting new members for remaining
tenure of the Committee. (6) All
receipts of the Committee shall be deposited or cause to be deposited by
opening in its name a Savings Bank Account at the nearest nationalized bank
branch, regional rural bank or any scheduled commercial bank. (7) After
completion of the tenure of two years, the Ward Sabha shall make fresh
selection of members mentioned in sub-rule (3). (8) The
accounts of Ward Sabha shall be jointly operated by the Chairman (Ward Member)
and Member Secretary. The records pertaining to the schemes executed by the
Committee and the Pass Books along with Cheque Books of the Bank shall be kept
in custody of the chairman (Ward Member). (9) Ward
Implementation and Management Committee shall mainly discharge the following
functions:- (a)
To generate proposals and
determine the priority of schemes and development programmes for consideration
of the Ward Sabha. (b)
To assist the Ward Sabha in
generating awareness on issues like literacy, public sanitation, health,
environment, pollution control etc. (c)
To select appropriate locations
on behalf of Ward Sabha for water supply, public sanitation units and other
public amenity schemes. (d)
To work under general control of
Ward Sabha/Gram Panchayat for prevention of epidemics and natural calamities. (e)
Execution of
schemes/programmes/responsibilities given from time to time by Ward Sabha/Gram
Panchayat/Government. (f)
To place before the Ward Sabha
updated progress report related to functions of the committee. (10)
The first meeting of the Ward
Implementation and Management Committee shall be held immediately after its
constitution, and the date, time and place of subsequent meeting shall be
decided in each preceding meeting. The Committee shall generally meet once in a
week, but convening two meeting in a month will be mandatory. The Chairman
shall, upon the written request of one third members of the Committee
containing therein the issues for consideration along with proposed date of
meeting, call a special meeting on that date. The quorum for meeting shall be
completed by presence of four members out of total members of the Committee. (11)
The Committee may, subject to the
provisions made in the departmental guidelines, adopt regulation to carry out
its duties and conduct of its meetings. (12)
In execution of Public Works
Schemes, the Committee shall function under the general guidance of the Public
Works Committee constituted under Section 25(1)(vi) of the Act and will also
submit reports and returns as required by that Committee (Public Works
Committee) from time to time. The State Government may
clarify any provision of the Rules by way of notification/order and may remove
difficulties arising out in its implementation. BIHAR WARD SABHA & WARD
IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE CONDUCT OF BUSINESS RULES, 2017
PREAMBLE