Village administration in mizoram: A case study of the village council of lungleng i village

The Interim Government of India had appointed a sub-committee to the Constituent Assembly of North-East Frontier (Assam) Tribal and Excluded Areas Committee under the chairmanship of first Assam Chief Minister Gopinath Bardoloi. The committee recommended setting up of autonomous district councils to provide due representative structures at the local level to the tribal population. The recommendation was later incorporated into Sixth Schedule article 244 (2) & Article 275(1) of the Indian Constitution. As per sixth schedule states like Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram are the states consisting of tribal areas and certain provisions were made to create some district and regional councils specially for the tribal areas. These councils have certain judicial and legislative powers. As per provisions of the Sixth Schedule Village Councils have been set up accordingly in these states. In Mizoram the Village Councils were set up in 1954 by the Lushai Disrtict Council under the Lushai Hills District (Village Council) Act in 1953. Village Councils serve as the grassroots democracy in Mizoram. This paper looks into the working of such grassroots administration and its efficiency. The study has taken up the Village Council Lungleng 1 for its case study.