(a) whether the Government has formulated a scheme to allow Panchayats to make expenditure on scheme as per their discretion apart from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Sanitation schemes;
(b) if so, the details of the said schemes including the details of funds disbursed in the State of Madhya Pradesh; and
(c) if not, the steps being taken by the Government to strengthen Panchayats?
THE MINISTER OF PANCHAYATI RAJ
(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)
(a) & (b) No Sir. However, Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP), “one Plan for one Gram Panchayat” is prepared by the Gram Panchayats through participatory planning, by converging the resources and schemes pertaining to the 29 subjects in XIth Schedule of the Constitution of India devolved to them and approved by Gram Sabha. .During 2019-20, 240997 GPDPs have been prepared across all States/UTs including 22736 in the State of Madhya Pradesh.
(c) ‘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 through its schemes and programmes. Towards this, in order to strengthen governance capabilities of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI)through training and capacity building of PRIs to deliver on Sustainable Development Goals, the Government is implementing aCentrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA). This is being implemented from 2018-19 and is for four years upto 2021-22, has a total outlay of Rs.7255.50 crore. Under 14th Finance Commission , grants of Rs. 2,00,292 crore for the period from 2015 to 2020 have been allocated to Gram Panchayats (GPs) constituted under Part-IX of the Constitution for delivering basic services.
Realising the importance of e-governance at the Gram Panchayat level, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) is implementing e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) wherein a suite of core software applications for Panchayats have been developed. These applications are collectively called Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES) which address planning, budgeting, implementation, accounting, monitoring, social audit and delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licences, etc. These applications are available to all the Gram Panchayats.
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