Balwant Rai Mehta Committee was constituted by the Government of India on 16 January 1957 to study or examine the functioning of the Community Development Program (CDP) 1952 and the National Extension Scheme (NES) 1953 and to suggest measures. Balwantrai G Mehta was the chairman of this committee.
Recommendation of Balwant Rai Mehta Committee are:
- The committee in its report recommended the establishment of a scheme for democratic decentralization that is, the Panchayati Raj institution (PRI).
- It recommended 3 tier Panchayati Raj System which includes Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, and gram panchayat at district, block, and village level respectively.
- The Chairman of the Zilla Parishad should be the District Collector.
- the Zilla Parishad should be the advisory, coordinating, and supervisory body, whereas the Panchayat Samiti should be the executive body.
- Elections should be organized every 5 years.
Rajasthan on 2nd October 1959 became the first state to implement the Panchayati Raj institution in India
The Recommendation of the Balwant Rai Mehta committee accepted by the National Development Council in January 1958, but the government did not insist on a single rigid pattern of a three-tier Government and left it on the state to evolve their own pattern of Panchayati Raj institution. But the basic principle of the Panchayati Raj institution as recommended to be identical all through.