Ten Dweep Panchayats and one District Panchayat: local government in the islands

Background

Local government in Lakshadweep rests on the Lakshadweep Panchayats Regulation, 1994, which was promulgated by the President of India on 23 April 1994 and brought into force in the Union Territory on 23 May 1995. Under the first schedule of the Regulation there are ten Village (Dweep) Panchayats, one in each inhabited island, and a District Panchayat for the whole of Lakshadweep. The first Village (Dweep) Panchayats were constituted in December 2002 and the District Panchayat in January 2003. The ten Village (Dweep) Panchayats have 79 members in all, of whom 30 are women, and four of their chairpersons are women. The District Panchayat is made up of 22 directly elected members, the ten chairpersons of the Village (Dweep) Panchayats and the Member of Parliament representing Lakshadweep, and 12 of its members are women. Village Panchayats prepare their own annual budgets for schemes entrusted to them by the Administration as well as their own development plans, which are placed before the District Panchayat meeting.