The basic method of administering the Trust had been written into the Trust Deed itself and according to it three-fourths of the amount collected from a region was to be spend on programmes concerning that region itself, and the balance of one-fourth was to be used by the Centre for all India programmes, except in the case of Bombay whicg was to utilize 25 percent of its collections, the rest being added to the Central pool. Donations earmarked for any specific purposes were not included in the general allocation and were to be spent for the specific purposes indicated.
To put this direction into action, the Executive Committee divided the country into twenty five units which also included erstwhile Indian states, The number of these unites was so large because the recognization of the country on the linguistic lines had not taken place by that time. Later on, in 1957, when the recognization had been completed, their number was reduced to 16. Each of these unites had a executive officer, called ‘Sanchalak’, a person with a fairly long record of Gandhian Constructive work and experience. The assist him in his work, there was an Advisory Committee consisting of twelve Trustees.
The administrative mode of operation during these early years- and, in fact, right upto 1957 – was a highly centralized one. All regional proposals, whether relating to work programmes or administrative requirements had to be forwarded to the Executive Committee in New for approval. But it became clear as the years went by much local and regional initiative was being lost in the process. To remove this, the Executive Committee decided in 1958 to decentralize the administration and the experience soon proved the wisdom of this policy for inducing a grater sense of responsibility in these bodies.
The main features of the decentralization step were (a) in place of the Advisory Committee, a State Board, with important executive functions of its own and nominated by the Executive Committee, was constituted for each State; (b) the Secretary of the State Board was to be the Executive Officer and was to work in direct consultation with its Chairman/Chairperson; (c) internal appointments and dismissals became the sole prerogative of the State Board; and (d) once the Executive Committee’s sanction was obtained for a programme, no further reference to the Central management in New Delhi was necessary in the course of its implementation.
The State Boards generally consisted of between seven and eleven Trustees and were registered in 1962-63 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 under Registration No. 79 with powers to accept donations as week as grants from Government or semi-official bodies. The corpus of the Trust and interest accruing on its investments, both Central and State, continued to remain in the custody of the Holding Trustees in New Delhi.
The branch of Punjab Gandhi Smarak Nidhi commenced its functioning in the year of 1951 in Ambala Cantt of which Shri Om Prakash Trikha was appointed as Sanchalak and Doctor Gopichand Bhargawa was appointed as the Chairman/Chairperson. It commenced its activities by Grama Sewa and Tattwa Prachar centres. At the start, there were sixty seven Gram Sewa centres in seventeen districts. Later on, it’s Head office was transferred to village Pattikalyana, near Samalkha which was then in District Karnal but is now in Panipat District keeping in the view the objectives of the Nidhi. After the Central Gandhi Smarak Nidhi decided to decentralize its activities, The Punjab Gandhi Smarak Nidhi was also registered under the Societies Registration Act, XXI of 1860 and as amended by Punjab amendment Act, 1957 with Doctor Gopichand Bhargawa as Chairman/Chairperson and Shri Om Prakash Trikha as secretary on 18-01-1963. Later on, after recognisation of states, Punjab was also divided into three states i.e. Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh state and accordingly it was registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 as The Gandhi Smarak Nidhi Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, Pattikalyana (Karnal) on 12th October, 1970 and in accordance with Memorandum of the Association and Rules and Regulations of the Nidhi with fifteen Gandhian objectives, the following Trustees were appointed as Trustees of state board:
- Shri Om Prakash Trikha Chairman/Chairperson
- Shri Satya Prakash Sharma Secretary
- Shri Bhim Sen Sachar Trustee
- Shri Som Dua Trustee
- Prof. Shadi Ram Joshi Trustee
- Shri Dada Ganesh Lal Trustee
- Shri Khan Abdul Majid Khan Trustee
- Shri Yash Pal Mittal Trustee
- Shri Onkar Chand Trustee
- Smt. Satyavati Ji Trustee
- Shri Rajbir Singh Rawat` Trustee
From the years of 1959 to 1970 on thirteen intensive work centres and five Border Area Centres upto 31-03-1970, the Nidhi has spent Rs, 11.22 lakhs (Eleven lakhs twenty two thousand) on them.