“Panchayati Raj is the medium to transform rural India into 700 million opportunities”.
The State of the Panchayat mid term review and appraisal was published and later placed on both the houses of the Parliament. This was a fulfillment of the commitment made by the Ministry of the Fourth Round Table of the Panchayati Raj Ministers held in Srinagar in 2004.
RoadmapA roadmap of Panchayati Raj emerged from seven Round table talks held between July and December 2001. They mutually agreed upon action points. The Ministry has been making all out efforts to progressively monitor the action points. The Council of Ministers was convened at Bhuvaneshwar in June 2006. The Chairmanship of the National Development Council’s Empowered Sub-Committee on devolution has been entrusted to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Two meetings of the Sub-Committee were held in Delhi in June and September 2006. This was reinforced by series of Panchayati Raj tours undertaken by the Minister of Panchayati Raj in seventeen States and two Union Territories which lasted till October 2006. The tours were made in the company of the State Panchayati Raj Ministers and crowned by a joint statement signed by the Chief Minister and the Minister of Panchayati Raj.
Incentivizing DevolutionThe Ministry has been working towards incentivizing devolution. The incentivization has been undertaken both at the state government as well as the three tiers of the Panchayati Raj System. Towards end the Ministry has been evolving its Panchayat Empowerment and accountability Incentive Fund and has been working on a devolution index, which help measure, the extent to which the functions have been devolved. National Council of Applied Economic Research was accordingly commissioned in August 2006 to prepare a devolution index.
Activity MappingActivity mapping is the foundation of sound Panchayati Raj. As a result of the reviews taken by the Ministry and the visits of the Minister of Panchayati Raj to several states, which have adequate activity maps. The process will continue and it is hoped that by this year suitable activity maps in respect of all the states will be in place. This will usher in devolution of Functions, Finances and Functionaries in letter and spirit.
District Planning
District Planning, which is a practical, feasible process of participative, democratic, grassroots governance through which the Panchayati Raj Institutions can be metamorphosed into “institutions of self-government” has been pursued by the Ministry with vigour. An expert committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Shri V. Ramachandran, former Chief Secretary and Vice-Chairman of the Planning Board of Kerala to carry out an study and set out the steps through which the grassroots Planning can be made a reality. The Ministry convened a workshop in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in May 2006 and placed the findings of the Committee before the State governments. This was followed up through detailed interaction with states at the Bhuveneshwar meeting in June 2006 with the Council of Ministers of Panchayati Raj and in National Development Council’s Empowered Sub-Committee on devolution. During 2006 only a few states like Rajasthan, Kerala and Sikkim have duly constituted the District Planning Committees as per the constitutional mandate.
Gram SwarajThe Ministry while recognizing the importance of hands on capacity building and training has formulated a scheme entitled Gram Swaraj. The Ministry has also prepared a concept paper on the National Capability Framework. The IT enablement of Panchayats was taken up through the project Mission Mode under the Nation E- Governance Plan.
As per the recommendations of the 12th Finance Commission, a grant of Rs. 20,000 crores is to be allocated for supplementing the Consolidated Funds of the State Governments for augmenting the resources of Panchayati Raj Institutions over the period 2005-2010. Although funds are released by the Ministry of Finance, considering the substantial amount of funds earmarked for PRIs, a monitoring committee has been formed in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj under the Chairpersonship of Secretary (Panchayati Raj). Ministry of Panchayati Raj also developed software for electronic transfer of funds from the State Consolidated Funds to the bank accounts of the Panchayats and 14 States agreed to adopt the software.
New InitiativesThe Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) programme was approved during the year. The programme subsumes the existing Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana and is designed to redress regional imbalances. The programme covers in all 250 districts and the Ministry has released an amount of Rs. 1020 crores during 2006.
To initiate awareness campaign for gender empowerment, the Panchayat Mahila Shakti Abhiyan has been conceptualized. A Core Group of eminent activists was formed for every state to spearhead the Abhiyan. Six Conferences of elected women representatives, activists, NGOs, eminent personalities have been organized between April 2006 and October 2006 at Udaipur (Rajasthan), Patiala (Punjab) Bangalore (Karnataka), Dehardun (Uttara nchal), Imphal (Manipur), Panaji (Goa).
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had jointly launched a nation wide campaign called the Panchayat Yuva Shakti Abhiyan (PYSA) to synergize with youth and grass root leaders to promote the grass root democracy in Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, with which this Ministry is coordinating, has an initiative to organize a series of PYSA sports events.
Business HubThe concept of the Rural Business Hub (RBH) was given a big thrust during the year by establishing alliances with Industry Associations like CII and listing out 10 states as focus states for development of product clusters. Apart from the National RBH Council, 12 states have set up state level RBH Councils during the year.
There has been a growing involvement with local governance in other countries. The Ministry played host to delegations from the Republic of South Africa and Sri Lanka. A working group has already been set up with the Republic of South Africa on local governance. The notable achievement was the signing of an agreement with Pakistan in November 2006 in Islamabad on setting up a joint working Group on Local Governance and accountability.
SV/AB/RTS/VN
SS-39/SF-39/24.01.2007