58

the question of the flying of the national flag. The
boycott of the Indian Statutory Commission was advo-
cated in five districts by the closure of offices and
schools—in some cases for an hour only—on the 3rd
February 1928, the date on which the Commission landed
at Bombay. One district council also refused to supply
information which it thought might be required for the
Commission

PART III.

VILLAGE SANITATION PANCHAYATS.

87. Village Sanitation Panchayats are governed by
the Central Provinces Village Sanitation and Public
Management Act, 1920 (C. P- Act No. II of 1920). The
Act was introduced in the pre-Reform Legislative Council
in 1919 pan passu with the Local Self-Government Bill
and the Village Panchayat Bill both of which subsequently
passed almost simultaneously into law as the Central Prov-
inces Local Self-Government Act, 1920, and the Village
Panchayat Act, 1920. Each of these three Acts formed
an essential part of the reorganization of the framework
of Local Self-Gdvernment in rural areas and they owed their
genesis to the report of the Decentralization Commission
and the final shape in which they were presented to the
Legislative Council largely to the Resolution No. 41 of the
Government of India in the Department of Education
(Municipalities), dated May 16th, 1918.

88. The constitution of a panchayat for a local area
requires the sanction of the local Government which is
moved thereto by the Deputy Commissioner either on his
own initiative or upon application by not less than 10
residents plus the working patel or mukkadam (headman
of the village).

89. The functions of village sanitation panchayats
are declared in section 4 of the Act to be—

(1) conservancy,

(2) water-supply,

(3) roads, and

(4) any other local work or measure likely to be of

public utility in the local area.