Panchayat samiti

The Panchayat Samiti is divided into territorial constituencies, each represented by a directly elected member, who collectively form the Panchayat Samiti council. The samiti is elected for five years and is headed by a chairperson/president and deputy chairperson/vice president elected by the members of the panchayat samiti. One sarpanch samiti supervises the other gram panchayats. Composition of mandal parishads in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana A coterminous mandal parishad is constituted for each revenue mandal. A mandal parishad is composed of: • Mandal parishad territorial constituency members • Members of the state legislative assembly having jurisdiction over the mandal • Members of the House of the People having jurisdiction over the mandal • Members of the Council of States who are voters in the mandal • One co-opted member, belonging to minorities Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) members are directly elected by the voters, whereas the mandal president is elected by the MPTC members. The members are elected for a term of five years. The election to MPTCs is done on a party basis. The elections are conducted by the state election commission. The sarpanch are permanent invitees to the mandal parishad meetings. == Departments ==

The most common departments found in a panchayat samiti are: == Functions ==

The panchayat samiti collects all the prospective plans prepared at gram panchayat level and processes them for funding and implementation by evaluating them from the angles of financial constraints, social welfare, and area development. It also identifies and prioritizes the issues that should be addressed at the block level. == Sources of income ==

The income of the panchayat samiti comes from: • Land and water use taxes, professional taxes, liquor taxes and others • Income-generating programmes • Grants-in-aid and loans from the state government and the local zila parishad • Voluntary contributions For many panchayat samiti, the main source of income is state-aid. For others, the traditional taxing function provides the bulk of revenues. Tax revenues are often shared between the gram panchayats and the panchayat samiti. == References ==