Question : Facility of e-Panchayat

(a) the present status of progress made to provide internet/e-Panchayat facility in all the Panchayats in the country, State/UT-wise including Punjab, Gujarat and Odisha;
(b) the number of Panchayats which have been provided with internet/e-Panchayat facility and the number of Panchayats yet to achieve this facility, State/UT-wise including Gujarat and Odisha;
(c) whether any proposal for modernization of Panchayats in the State of Gujarat is under consideration and if so, the details and the present status thereof;
(d) whether the Union Government has been in consultation with the Government of Punjab in this regard and if so, the details thereof along with the time by which all Panchayats in Punjab are likely to be digitised;
(e) the progress achieved under the Digital India Programme in rural areas to enable feasibility of the said facility; and
(f) the time by which all the Panchayats in the country are likely to be equipped with the said facility?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ
(SHRI PARSHOTTAM RUPALA)

(a) to (f) For attaining the vision of Digital India, the Department of Telecommunications is implementing the BharatNet project in a phased manner to create network to connect all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country by broadband. As part of BharatNet project, the last mile connectivity is sought to provide through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology to access broadband / internet services to all the GPs in the country. As informed by Department of Telecommunications under BharatNet project as on 16th December 2018, total 1,16,543 Gram Panchayats (GPs) have been made Service Ready and the State/ UT wise list including Punjab, Gujarat and Odisha for internet/e-Panchayat facility is given at Annexure and BharatNet Project is targeted to be completed by March 2019.

MoPR has been implementing e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) that seeks to transform the functioning of all the Panchayats, making them more transparent, accountable and effective as organs of decentralized self-governing institutions. Under e-Panchayat, a suite of core software applications has been developed to address various aspects of Panchayats’ functioning including planning, budgeting, implementation, accounting, monitoring, social audit and delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licenses, tax collection etc.

Panchayat being a State subject, providing basic infrastructure including computers and internet facility in all the Panchayats are primarily the responsibility of concerned State Government / Union Territories (UTs) administration. The expenditure on modernization/ digitization of Panchayats is largely borne by States/UTs. However, Government has taken initiatives for modernization / digitization of the Panchayats by providing Computers/ internet/e-Panchayat facility in the country including Gujarat and Punjab.

Upto 10% of the Grants under Fourteenth Finance Commission can be used by Gram Panchayats (GPs) as technical and administrative support towards Operation & Maintenance and Capital expenditure. Among other activities, expenditure towards (i) purchase of computer and accessories as well as cost of Annual Maintenance in GPs, which do not have any computer at present and (ii) one-time cost for providing internet connectivity and recurring charges can also be incurred from the 10 % Operation & Maintenance expenditure.

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) launched the restructured Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA), which aims at strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) by way of capacity building of the PRIs and its functionaries. The scheme provides financial support to States towards different activities e.g. capacity building and training, training infrastructure, human resource for training, e-enablement, Information Education and Communication and Project Management Unit etc. relating to strengthening of Panchayats as included in their respective Annual Action Plan.

For the current year 2018-19 under RGSA scheme, Gujarat and Punjab has proposed activities relating to Capacity Building & Training, technical support to GP, e-enablement, Administrative and Financial Data Analysis and Planning Cell, Information Education & Communication and Project Management Unit and this Ministry has approved Rs. 27.9 Crore and Rs. 98.9 Crore for Gujarat and Punjab, respectively under RGSA.
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