Need to further strengthen Panchayati Raj system: Mukherjee

Former president Pranab Mukherjee Saturday called for massive decentralisation in institutional building and questioned the legal authority of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

He said there was a need to further strengthen the Panchayati Raj system and maintained that concentration of power in the hands of the Centre and the PMO would affect the functioning of a democratic country like India.

The veteran politician was at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) here to deliver a lecture on "Articulating Policy and Institutional Agenda for Future Transformation of India."
Replying to a question from the audience as to why political parties shied away from the issue of empowering local institutions and governments, Mukherjee said, "In institutional building, there should be massive decentralisation."
"If the institutions of democracy are under pressure, it is time for serious thinking," he said, while stressing the need to "re-establish the faith of people in the institutions of democracy."