Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj as the foundation of India's political system, as a decentralized form of government in which each village would be responsible for its own affairs. Instead, India developed a highly centralized form of government. However, this has been moderated by the delegation of several administrative functions to the local level. empowering elected gram panchayats. The Panchayat Raj system was first adopted by the state of Rajasthan in Nagaur district on 2 Oct The second state was Andhra Pradesh. During the and , other state governments adopted this system as laws were passed to establish panchayats in various states. In the history of Panchayati Raj, in India, on 24 April the Constitutional amendment) Act 1992 came into force to provide constitutional status Panchayati Raj institutions.