Decentralization in South Indian States

The 73rd constitutional amendment is a milestone in the modern history of Indiaand it has taken democracy to the grassroots. It aims to transform the characteristics of our democracy from representative to representative and participatory democracy. Before going into the details of the process of decentralization of powers in the states over a period it is necessary to explain the basic framework of decentralization of powers. To operationalise the basic framework—in both letter and spirit—the state governments have to take an array of steps that are fundamental and basic for the establishment of a local governance system. By keeping the above framework in mind the author has evaluated in this book how decentralization took place in the four south Indian states ofTamilNadu Karnataka Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.