Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Panchayati Raj and Rural Development K. Pawan Kalyan will inaugurate the programme. | Photo credit: GN Rao
The two-day ‘PESA Mahotsav: Utsav Lok Sanskriti Ka’ will be held in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday and Wednesday (December 23 and 24, 2025) to mark the enactment of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA). PESA Day is celebrated on 24 December to mark the anniversary of the law.
Organized by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, the event will be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Panchayati Raj and Rural Development K Pawan Kalyan. Union Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Vivek Bharadwaj along with other senior officials of the Center and State will also attend this event. Nearly 2,000 representatives from all 10 PESA states, including panchayat representatives, sportspersons, cultural artists and others are expected to attend the celebration. The PESA Mahotsav is intended as a national platform to celebrate the cultural and traditional heritage of the tribal communities of the PESA areas.
According to an official statement, several important national initiatives related to PESA will be launched on December 24, including a PESA portal to disseminate information and monitor the implementation of PESA, PESA indicators to assess the status of implementation in states, training modules on PESA in tribal languages for awareness and capacity building at the grassroots level, and an e-book on Kinnaur region, a traditional region of Himachal Pradesh, and documenting knowledge on the traditional culture of the Himachal Pradesh region.
As part of the celebrations, special Gram Sabhas will be held in the PESA Gram Panchayats of Andhra Pradesh with the participation of elected representatives of the participating states on 10 designated PESA topics. In addition, special Gram Sabhas will also be organized on December 24 in all 10 PESA states to focus on strengthening community participation, conservation of natural resources and preservation of customary practices, livelihoods and social justice.
The program will witness a range of sports and cultural activities that will showcase the diversity and vibrancy of India’s tribal heritage. The main venue for the Mahotsav will be Visakhapatnam Port Authority Campus with activities spread across Ramakrishna Beach, Indoor Stadium, Cricket Stadium and Kalavani Auditorium, all in Visakhapatnam city.
In the sense of Article 243M paragraph 4 letter (b) of the Constitution of India, Parliament passed the “Panchayats Provisions (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996” (called as the PESA Act) to extend the provisions of Part IX of the Constitution, with certain exceptions and modifications, to Scheduled Areas.
Scheduled areas are areas that are declared by the President of India. Article 244(1) and the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution deal with provisions relating to reserved areas. Since these Scheduled Areas are mentioned in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, they are called as Fifth Plan Areas. Currently, fifth plan areas have been declared in 10 states – Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.
Published – 21 Dec 2025 19:22 IST
