Panchayati Raj Ministry in 2024: Focus on more panchayat buildings, internet connectivity

New Delhi: Bridging infrastructure gaps in panchayats, the grassroots democratic bodies pivotal to the implementation of government schemes in villages, remained in focus for the Panchayati Raj Ministry in 2024, with funds being sanctioned for the construction of more than 4,000 Panchayat Bhawans.

According to a senior official, the Panchayati Raj Ministry sanctioned funds for the construction of Gram Panchayat (GP) Bhawans in 4,604 locations. Once these buildings are constructed, all GPs having a population of more than 3,000 will have an office of its own.

India has over 2.6 lakh GPs, with approximately 65 per cent of its population living in rural areas. Panchayats have been at the forefront of the implementation of sustainable development goals, and ensuring the reach of government programmes to people.

The ministry sanctioned 661 Panchayat Bhawans for Arunachal Pradesh, 617 for Andhra Pradesh, 612 for Uttarakhand, 568 for Maharashtra, 500 each for Haryana and Punjab, 412 for Gujarat, 258 for Karnataka, 178 for Assam, 146 for Tamil Nadu, and 100 for Uttar Pradesh.

The official said this has ensured that all GPs in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim will have their own office premises.

“Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in India have suffered for decades with deficient infrastructure. More than 35,000 GPs in the country do not have an office. While the country has made tremendous strides in digital infrastructure, over 40,000 GPs in the country still do not have any computers,” a senior official told PTI.

The progress made by the ministry in building Panchayat Bhawans was also lauded by the parliamentary panel on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, which said in a recent report that “significant progress” has been made in the construction of Panchayat Bhawans and equipping GPs with computers.

The panel pointed out that of a total of 2,68,938 GPs and Traditional Local Bodies (TLBs), only 2,29,958 have Panchayat Bhawans, leaving a considerable gap.

Additionally, while 2,13,140 panchayats are equipped with computers, several states still lack sufficient digital infrastructure, which could hinder the implementation of e-Governance initiatives and real-time monitoring systems such as eGramSwaraj.

The ministry in 2024 also sanctioned 31,003 computers for all GPs having their own office buildings to ensure that digital infrastructure is available at the lowest tier of governance.

With digitalisation being in focus, the online platform for rural local bodies - eGramSwaraj, which was so far only available in English, was made available in 22 scheduled languages, making its use easier.

The eGramSwaraj is a user-friendly web-based portal, which aims at bringing better transparency in decentralised planning, progress reporting, and work-based accounting. It enables planning, budgeting, and implementation of schemes as well as seamless payments.

The integration of eGramSwaraj with Bhashini, a government initiative for provisioning translations, was launched on August 14, 2024.

“By overcoming linguistic barriers, this initiative promotes inclusive participation among panchayat officials and citizens, improving service delivery and empowering panchayats to address community needs more effectively, driving progress in rural governance,” an official said.

The SVAMITVA programme, launched in 2020, aims at providing a “Record of Rights” to every property owner in the Village Abadi area, was another highlight for the Panchayati Raj Ministry in 2024, with 2.19 crore property cards being finalised so far.

Besides, 92 percent of the drone mapping has covered around 3.17 lakh of the over 3.44 lakh villages that were the target. The scheme's targets are likely to be achieved by 2026.

The ministry has also extensively focused on conducting training and workshops for functionaries of PRIs, with raising ‘Own Source Revenue’, the income generated by panchayats, being among the focus areas.

According to officials, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), is developing a training module on Own Source Revenue (OSR) to empower Gram Panchayats (GPs) towards becoming self-reliant and sustainable.

The initiative aims to help GPs achieve localised Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without dependency on external support.

Meanwhile, special trainings have also been conducted for PESA states. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, (PESA) gives special powers to the Gram Sabhas in Scheduled Areas, especially for the management of natural resources.

The PESA Act encompasses 10 States: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Telangana.

Special training modules tailored for Women Elected Representatives (WERs) were also introduced, focused on enhancing the capacity of Women Elected Representatives of Panchayats in delivering roles and responsibilities, focusing on leadership skills, conflict management, digital literacy, financial literacy, and service delivery.

Efforts were made to stop the "sarpanch pati" system -- a practice in which the husband of an elected woman sarpanch wields the actual power.

In an innovative move, the Community Radio Association (CRA) has been involved in creating awareness on the issues.

An initiative was launched in 2024 to create Model Women Friendly Gram Panchayats to promote the Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals accelerating women's rights, entitlements, and empowerment in all states/Union Territories in collaboration with the UNFPA.