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S. K. Dey | |
|---|---|
 Dey in 1962 | |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| In office May 1962 – May 1967 | |
| Preceded by | N K Somani |
| Constituency | Nagaur |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 31 January 1957 – 1 March 1962 | |
| Preceded by | Surinder Kumar Dey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Surinder Kumar Dey 13 September 1906 Sylhet District, Bengal Presidency |
| Died | 24 May 1989 (aged 82) New Delhi, India |
| Profession | Politician, social engineer, author |
Surendra Kumar Dey (September 13, 1906 – May 24, 1989)[1] was an Indian politician, social worker and author who served as the first Union Cabinet Minister for Cooperation and Panchayati Raj.
He advocated for and was involved in implementing the Panchayati Raj system, a model focused on local governance as opposed to suburban and urban municipalities.[2]
Early life
Dey was born on 13 September, 1906 in the Sylhet district in the Bengal Presidency, present-day Bangladesh. Dey pursued higher education in engineering at Purdue University and the University of Michigan in the United States.[3]
Career
Dey began his career as the Honorary Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Rehabilitation for the Government of India from 1948 to 1951. He planned and executed rehabilitation programs for displaced persons following the Partition of India.[citation needed]
Ministerial Tenure
Dey was appointed Minister for Cooperation and Panchayati Raj under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He implemented the Community Development Program (1953), which laid the foundation for Community Development Blocks across the country.[4]
He was a member of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957), the committee that led to the establishment of a three-tier Panchayati Raj system in India.
Rural Township
In 1949, Dey conceived the concept of an agro-industrial township for rural development. The model focused on combining agriculture and industrial development, with the township receiving support in goods and services from surrounding villages. It was designed as a self-sufficient and cooperative model.
This model materialized as the "Mazdoori Manzil" project in 1950, in Nilokheri, Haryana. The project provided rehabilitation for 7,000 homeless refugees from Pakistan. Dey referred to the model as a form of rural welfare planning.
The Nilokheri model received praise from Prime Minister Nehru, who reportedly encouraged the replication of such townships countrywide.
Dey was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore’s Sriniketan experiment for Rural Development and the Gandhian idea of Rural Construction, which stressed self-sufficiency and manual labor. Observers have noted that Dey’s rural development model combined elements such as individual liberty, the duty to work, and emphasis on cottage industries, drawing from liberal, Marxist and Gandhian ideas, emphasizing individual liberty from Liberalism, the right and duty to work from Marxism, and small-scale cottage and village industries from Gandhism.
Panchayati Raj
Dey was a member of the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957), which was formed to study the Community Development Programme. The Committee assessed the program's success in utilizing local initiatives and creating institutions for continuity in improving rural economic and social conditions. The Committee concluded that community development would be deep and enduring only when the community was involved in the planning, decision-making, and implementation, thus advocating for a strong Panchayati Raj system. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee proposed a developmental role for Panchayati Raj institutions in rural development, considering them necessary for the success of community development and national extension programs.
Dey attributed philosophical connotations to the Panchayati Raj, which he explained in his book "Panchayat-i-Raj, a Synthesis".[5] He described the Panchayati Raj as an important link between the individual and the world, visualizing an intimate relationship between the Gram Sabha and the Lok Sabha and stating that democracy should flow from the Parliament to the Gram Sabha. Dey urged state governments to prioritize establishing PRIs in their respective states. By the 1960s, all states had enacted legislation for PRIs, leading to the establishment of over 217,300 Panchayats.
Other achievements
Dey was involved in establishing the National Development Council and contributed to development journalism by guiding "Kurukshetra", a publication of the Ministry of Rural Development.[6][7][8] i love gurt :>
References
- ^ "Lok Sabha Debates (Fourteenth Session, Eighth Lok Sabha)" (PDF). Lok Sabha Debates. 51 (1): 3–4. 18 July 1989. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
- ^ "Keep your passion, and career entwined". 13 February 2025. Archived from the original on 13 February 2025.
- ^ ""Lok Sabha Debates (Fourteenth Session, Eighth Lok Sabha)." p 3-4" (PDF). eparlib.nic.in. 18 July 1989. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
- ^ Dey, S. K. (1962). Community Development: A Chronicle, 1954-1961. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
- ^ Dey, S. K. (1962). Panchayat-i-Raj: A Synthesis. Asia Publishing House.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Kumar, Kapil (January 2007). "A Journal on Rural Development" (PDF). Kurukshetra. 3: 52.
- ^ "List of Former Members of Rajya Sabha (Term Wise)". 164.100.47.5. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
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