(a) whether the Government is implementing any scheme to provide adequate infrastructure facilities to the Panchayats in the country especially in Andhra Pradesh;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government proposes to provide ranking to the States based on the functioning of panchayats;
(d) if so, the details thereof; and
(e) the steps taken to incentivize States for greater devolution of powers to panchayats?
THE MINISTER OF PANCHAYATI RAJ
(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)
(a) & (b) ‘Panchayat’ being “local government”, which is part of the State List of Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India is a State subject and is the responsibility of the States. However, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) supplements the efforts of the States, including Andhra Pradesh through its schemes and programmes. The following programmes are also being implemented for providing adequate infrastructural facilities to Panchayats including Andhra Pradesh by the Government of India:
(i) Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) grants are provided to the Gram Panchayats (GPs) for infrastructure and basic services such as roads, drainage, footpaths, water supply, street lighting, sanitation, maintenance of community assets, cremation and burial grounds, etc. Rs.4197.33 crores as FFC grants has already been released for Panchayats of Andhra Pradesh.
(ii) Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) under the restructured scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) being implemented with effect from 2018-19, is providing financial support for certain infrastructural facilities for GPs such as Gram Panchayat Bhawans, computers and peripherals. Under RGSA Rs. 67.69 crore has been released for Andhra Pradesh during 2018-19.
(iii) Implementation of computerization of GPs is being done under various programmes such as RGSA, FFC, etc. An estimated 4847 Gram Panchayats in Andhra Pradesh have computers at present.
(iv) Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India, is implementing the BharatNet project to provide broadband connectivity to all GPs of the country. Currently, total of 1573 Gram Panchayats in Andhra Pradesh are service ready.
(v) Towards provision of online services in the rural areas and GPs, Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been setup through a ‘Common Service Centre - Special Purpose Vehicle’ (CSC-SPV), a society of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The key objective of CSCs is to deliver various citizen centric services, such as Government to Citizen (G2C), Business to Citizen (B2C) services, financial inclusion services, educational services, skill development services etc.
(c) to (e) Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has been implementing scheme of incentivising the Panchayats/States/Union Territories by rewarding best performing Panchayati Raj Institutions/ States/ UTs. Awards including financial incentives are given annually to best performing Panchayats (District, Intermediate and Gram) and States/UTs under the five categories namely: Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar for Gram/Block/District Panchayats, Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar for Gram Panchayats (GPs), Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Award for GPs, Child-friendly Gram Panchayat Award for GPs and e-Panchayat Puraskar for States/UTs only (without financial incentive). The awardees are selected from the nominations submitted by State Governments/UT Administrations to MoPR.
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