New software tech to make panchayats more accountable in Karnataka

Elected representatives will henceforth find it difficult to take gram panchayat (GP) meetings for granted, thanks to a first-of-its-kind technology intervention under the government’s Panchatantra 2.0 (P2.0) software, which authorities promise can keep democracy in rural local bodies intact.

P2.0 is the new software platform governing GPs, implemented by the Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department.

According to Additional Chief Secretary (RDPR) L K Atheeq, the new software has a dedicated Meeting Management Module. “The module conducts meetings through the digital process so that decisions are recorded as they are taken and they are not subsequently altered or tampered with,” he told DH.

Elected members skipping gram panchayat meetings is a major problem facing grassroots democracy.

“Any member who skips four meetings stands to be disqualified. But, most of them complain that they weren’t aware there was a meeting. Now, the system will generate meeting notices and SMS texts will be triggered,” an RDPR source said.

Quorum of elected representatives has been made mandatory for meetings. Biometric attendance is also compulsory at the start and end of a meeting. “Digital meeting notice generation, adding of participants, creating of meeting proceedings are all conducted on the P2.0 application,” the department said in a note.

The department is also trying to address another problem area: proceedings of panchayat meetings. “Proceedings were handwritten, only to be tampered with later. In many cases, blank space is left so that it can be filled later. There was no proper decision-making. Now, we’re asking panchayats to upload and digitally sign the proceedings,” the source said.

Under P2.0, proceedings of the meeting is digitally-signed by the panchayat chairperson on the same day and is made available to public and all the participants “promoting discipline, better decision-making, transparency and accountability,” the department said.

Karnataka has nearly 6,000 GPs. A total of 82,170 elected members, 5,954 presidents, 5,673 vice-presidents and 52,788 staff are registered on P2.0.

Automation of taxation for 1.5 crore rural properties is another technology intervention under P2.0. Taxes are calculated by the system. Apparently, the union government wants to emulate this model.

“We’ve designed a comprehensive digitally-assisted decentralised governance tool,” Atheeq said. “We hope to make P2.0 the mainstay of governance at the panchayat level through strong oversight from the government over its implementation and adoption.”