RAS question
Article 40 of the DPSP directs the State to organize:
Correct answer: (D) Village Panchayats as units of self-government.
Article 40 of the Directive Principles of State Policy directs the State to organise village panchayats as units of self-government.
Explanation
Article 40 is the Directive Principle that anchors local self-government at the village level. The official constitutional text says that the State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with the powers and authority needed for them to function as units of self-government. That wording matters: the article is not merely about creating bodies called panchayats, but about enabling them to exercise real local authority. This directive also connects to the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, which gave constitutional form to the panchayati raj framework. Therefore, among the options, the only one that matches both the article's text and its purpose is village panchayats as units of self-government.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) State-level human rights commissions are not mentioned in Article 40, which deals specifically with organising village panchayats.
- (B) Article 40 is about village panchayats, not national-level cooperative societies or cooperative organisation.
- (C) Inter-state councils for dispute resolution do not match Article 40, whose focus is village-level self-government through panchayats.
Concept
This tests the Directive Principles of State Policy, especially the constitutional basis of local self-government. RAS repeatedly asks such provisions because panchayati raj connects constitutional theory with Rajasthan's village-level administration.