Vidhi Codex

section 16

Constitution of Panchayat Samitis

The Orissa Panchayat Samiti Act, 1959
Infrastructure195986 sections1 chapters
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Statutory text
  1. (1) Every Block shall have a Samiti consisting of the following members, namely:-
    • (a) the Chairman of the Samiti elected in accordance with the provisions of clause (a) of sub-section (3);
    • (b) the Block Development Officer of the Block to be appointed by the Government;
    • (c) one or more of the employees of Government to be nominated by designation by Government from each of the departments dealing with Education, Revenue, Agriculture, Co-operative, Veterinary, Grama Panchayat, Forest, Medical, Health, Works, Welfare and such other departments as may be notified by Government : Provided that Government may in addition to or in lieu of any of the aforesaid employees nominate by designation any of the employees of any non-official organisation engaged in development work within the Block and persons so nominated shall be deemed to be official members for the purposes of this Act;
    • (e) Sarpanches of the Grama Panchayats situated within the Block : Provided that a Sarpanch suspended from office under the provisions of the Orissa Grama Panchayats Act, 1964, shall cease to be a member of the Samiti during the period of his suspension and the Naib-Sarpanch or, in his absence, the person elected or nominated under section 21 of the said Act to exercise the powers and perform the functions of the Sarpanch shall be deemed to be a member of the Samiti in place of the Sarpanch so suspended.
    • (f) Chairman of the Municipalities with a population not exceeding twenty thousand situated within the Block; and
    • (g) Chairman of each of the Notified Area Council with a population not exceeding twenty thousand situated within the Block ; provided that where the Chairman is not an elected member of such Council, a non-official member of the Council to be nominated by Government.
  2. (2) If the members of a Samiti specified in sub-section (1) and having the right to vote do not include a woman or a person belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, such members shall, at a meeting specially convened for the purpose by the Collector, elect in the prescribed manner the requisite number of persons as may be necessary for filling up the deficiency : Provided that the absence of a member of the Scheduled Castes or a member of the Scheduled Tribes shall not be deemed to be a deficiency, if the population of such Castes or Tribes, as the case may be, is less than five per centum of the total population on the basis of the latest census figures of the Block. Explanation-The expressions "Scheduled Castes" and "Scheduled Tribes" shall have the same meaning as assigned to them in the Constitution of India. (3)
    • (a) The members of all the Grama Panchayats within the jurisdiction of the Samiti shall, in the prescribed manner, elect the Chairman of the Samiti from among persons who are elected as or are eligible to be elected as members of any such Grama Panchayat :
    • (b) The members specified in clause (e) of sub-section (1) and the members, if any, elected under sub-section (2) shall, at a meeting convened by the Collector in that behalf, elect a Vice-chairman from among themselves in the prescribed manner : Provided that no election under this clause shall take place prior to holding of election, if any, required under sub-section (2).
    • (c) Any person holding office as the Chairman of a Samiti shall, if he happens to be a member of a Grama Panchayat, cease to be such member and so long as he continues to be such Chairman, shall not be eligible to be such member.
  3. (4) The term of office of the member, if any, elected under sub-section (2) shall be five years.
  4. (5) The meetings referred to in sub-section (2) and clause (b) of sub-section (3) shall be presided over by the Collector or any other Gazetted Officer authorised by him in this behalf.
  5. (6) The Collector shall cause the names of the non-official members of the Samiti to be published in the prescribed manner and the members shall be deemed to have held office, with effect from the date of such publication.

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