Bengal clears bill to limit panchayat pradhans’ financial powers
Times of India | 26 July 2026
Kolkata: The state assembly on Saturday passed the West Bengal Panchayat (Second Amendment) Bill, 2026, which aims to curtail the direct signing authority of gram panchayat pradhans in financial matters.
State panchayat minister Dilip Ghosh said the bill would empower people by not allowing gram panchayat pradhans to become “too powerful” and put an end to corruption and violence at the grassroots level.
“I can understand many are disappointed with the bill as this will put an end to cut-money culture. But we have decided to remove the causes that have defamed the state’s panchayat system for long,” Ghosh said.
Officials said the extended absence of pradhans in more than 80% of panchayats was hampering implementation of the 125-day employment programme, Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission Gramin (VB-G RAM G), in Bengal.
The leadership vacuum has disrupted project approvals, delayed wage payments and slowed the execution of development work across several rural areas, prompting the state govt to move to strip panchayat heads of their financial powers, an official said.
Ghosh said concentration of financial power at the hands of panchayat pradhans caused corruption and violence. “We have seen how violence marred panchayat polls in the past. In Bengal, unlike other states, people paid hefty sums to political parties to secure the post of panchayat pradhan. We wanted to get that uprooted,” he said.
The minister said financial signing duties on cheques and documents were being shifted to panchayat secretaries and executive assistants. Monthly income and expenditure accounts will now be submitted jointly to higher officials to boost transparency.
The bill proposes that official signing authority for financial disbursements, tenders and administrative execution be reassigned to the panchayat secretary, assistant secretary, block development officer, sub-divisional officer or district magistrate.
Indian Secular Front’s Nawsad Siddique, acknowledging corruption at the grassroots level, said removing financial powers from the hands of panchayat pradhans would ensure centralisation of power.
Akhruzzaman, a member of the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Trinamool rebel faction, proposed that the bill be sent to the select committee.
State higher education minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay said the state did not have a way out other than this to keep panchayats functioning.