Punjab which had previously held the status. The Human Development Index was also noted to have improved at a much faster rate than in other states, growing from being the lowest in the country in 1975 to above the national average in 1990. Between 1977 and 1980, Basu oversaw the identification of nearly 1 million acres of ceiling surplus land and its subsequent redistribution. The number of landless rural households decreased by 35% during this period. The Basu government began the process of "democratic decentralisation" in West Bengal by amending and implementing the provisions of the Panchayat Act. On 4 June 1978, local body elections were resumed after 14 years and the first direct elections were held to elect 56,000 representatives from 15 zila parishads, 324 panchayat samitis and 3,242 gram panchayats in West Bengal. By 1993, the number of representatives was expanded to over 71,000 representatives while Basu was credited to have been successful in the introduction of grassroots democracy and self governing units in West Bengal which substantially improved bureaucratic transparency, irrigation work, rural infrastructure and political participation and as a result standards of living. The successful implementation of panchayat raj in the state is also noted to have played an integral part in the identification and redistribution of ceiling surplus land, and played a significant part in the rise of agricultural growth through the 1980s. Among the more prominent measures initiated by the new government was that of Operation Barga. Introduced in 1978, it was a comprehensive and radical measure for land reforms which was further formalised through two legislation in 1979 and 1980. The operation sough to actively identify and record bargardars (trans: sharecroppers) by present occupational status without any reliance on ancestral records, producing official documentation for enforcement of the rights of bargardars to crop share from landlords and priority rights to lands in cases of both voluntary sale of land and forced sale of ceiling surplus lands. The number of recorded bargardars increased from 0.4 to 1.2 million by 1982, and resulted in the coverage of 50%+ output share concessions towards bargardars to increase from 10% to over 50% among registered bargardars and over 33% for unregistered bargardars. The implementation of the operation is noted to have improved the social status and security of tenancy of bargadars as well as decreased economic inequality. In addition it accounted for approximately 36% of agricultural growth during