Question : Infrastructural Facilities to Panchayats

(a) whether the Government has launched any scheme to upgrade the gram panchayats of the country and if so, the details of basic facilities provided like gram bhawan, building internet and public service centre, State and district-wise.

(b) if so, the details of the work done to upgrade all the panchayats of the country during the last three years including Maharashtra, Gram Panchayat-wise especially Latur district of Maharashtra

(c) the total amount of funds allocated to provide above mentioned infrastructure facility during the said period to all Gram Panchayats of the country including the States of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka;

(d) the total number of Gram Panchayats where such infrastructural facilities are not available, State/UT-wise including the States of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka; and

(e) whether the Government has fixed any time limit to provide the said infrastructure facilities in all the panchayats of the country and if so, the details thereof; and

(f) the details of steps taken to digitize district and village panchayats for greater devolution of powers to panchayats?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR PANCHAYATI RAJ

(SHRI KAPIL MORESHWAR PATIL)

(a) to (e) Panchayat being a State subject, providing infrastructural facilities to Gram Panchayats (GPs) are primarily the responsibility of States. Hence, no timeline can be fixed by the Ministry for saturation of infrastructural facilities. However, the Ministry, through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) being implemented since from 2018-19, supplements the efforts of States including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka on limited scale by providing financial support for certain infrastructural facilities for GPs such as Gram Panchayat Bhawans, computers and peripherals and also for co-location of Common Service Centre. Under the scheme funds have been provided to States and not to Districts or Gram Panchayats. During the last three years, against the approved annual action plan of Rs. 5373.79 crores, a sum of Rs. 1508.72 crore has been released under the scheme for various activities covered under RGSA including infrastructure facilities.

As per information available, State/UT-wise details of Gram Panchayats where such infrastructural facilities are not available, including the States of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka is at Annexure.

(f) The scheme of e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) is implemented under which a suite of core common 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, etc. Under the Digital India Programme, BharatNet project is being implemented by Department of Telecommunications in a phased manner to provide connectivity in all the Gram Panchayats in the country through Wi-fi or any other suitable broadband technology including Fiber to the Home (FTTH). The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India initiated a project namely “Common Services Centre (CSC-2.0: A Way Forward Project)” in August, 2015 under Digital India Programme, which aims to set up at least one CSC at Gram Panchayat (GP) level to cover all around 2.55 lakhs GPs across the country. The project is being implemented by M/s CSC e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC Special Purpose Vehicle; i.e. CSC –SPV).

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