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18:41 IST
MAJOR DECISIONS AND INITIATIVES
PANCHAYATI RAJ
The UPA Government completes one year on May 21, 2005. During this period, the Government has taken several important initiatives. Some of these are being brought out in the series ‘Major Decisions and Initiatives’.
Strengthening Panchayats
Considering the importance of the Panchayats as a medium to transform rural India into `700 million opportunities’, a conference of Chief Ministers and State Ministers of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj was held in June, 2004. This conference has decided that the newly created Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the State Governments/UT Administrations would together formulate for the consideration of both Central and State Governments/UT Administrations, a time-bound Draft Action Plan for enabling Panchayats to emerge as institutions of self-government. A set of 150 points emerged through consensus in the course of Seven Round Table Conferences held in different parts of the country during July to December, 2004. The discussions of these conferences were to consider the 18 dimensions of Panchayati Raj. The action points that emerged in the Round Tables were put together in a compendium and were circulated to all Chief Ministers and Governors/Lt. Governors of Union Territories.
A Committee of Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of Panchayati Raj under the chairmanship of Secretary, Panchayati Raj and a Council of Ministers of Panchayati Raj under the chairmanship of the Union Minister of Panchayati Raj have been set up to monitor the implementation of the recommendations. The State governments and UT Administrations were impressed upon the need for devolving each of the 29 subjects mentioned in the 11th Schedule of the Constitution through activity mapping to different tiers of Panchayats keeping in view the functions required to be performed by them. The State Governments/UT Administrations were requested to intimate the progress made in their respective regions, as activity mapping is the basis of devolution of funds, functions and functionaries to the PRIs. They were also requested to constitute District-Planning Committees (DPCs) by the end of the financial year, 2005-06. The States were informed that strengthening of DPCs was essential for the formulation of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, which will be actually consolidating the State Plans, which in turn would cover the district plans.
Monitoring Mechanism
The Ministry has initiated a process of visiting each of the States/UTs to review with the authorities concerned the progress in implementing the points for action agreed upon in the Round Tables. The Ministry also convened a National Presentation on Rural Business Hubs, “Economic Empowerment Through Panchayats”, on November 5, 2004, in New Delhi in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry. Presentations were made for the benefit of elected representatives of Panchayats on agriculture, horticulture, poultry, bamboo products and process, khadi and village industry, handicrafts, rural fashions-handlooms and garments, generation of bio-diesel from Jatropha, power generation through bio-mass, exploiting isolated gas wells for Panchayats, district plans for rural business hubs, leveraging IT enabled rural business hubs, etc.
RK:LV:VN
PIB SF-11 (9.5.05)
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