Cabinet approves restructured scheme for local bodies

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved a restructured Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) aimed at building infrastructure and stepping up initiatives for e-governance .

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the scheme on National Panchayati Raj Day on April 24.

The scheme will focus on training, building infrastructure, stepping up initiatives for e-governance under the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP), Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.

The scheme will extend to all states and Union Territories and will also include institutions of rural local government in non-Part IX areas, where panchayats do not exist.

"The sharing ratio for the state components will be 60:40 barring the Northeast and hilly states where it will be 90:10," Tomar informed.

"For UTs, the central share will be 100 per cent. The total proposed cost of the scheme is Rs 7255.50 crore," he said.

This year, National Panchayati Raj Day will be a two-day event.

On April 23, an interactive group discussion-cum-workshop titled "Panchayat Ki Choupal Mein Charcha" will be organized at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

The main event will be held at Ramnagar, Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh, from where the prime minister will address all the gram sabhas of the country.

"As part of this initiative, a mobile application -- ActionSoft -- has been developed for field-level reporting and monitoring of physical progress of the works undertaken by the panchayats.

"This mobile application captures the geographical coordinates and photo of each asset at different stages of work for the activities included under the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP). It will be launched on April 24," Tomar said.

Besides, a new award "Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Award" has been introduced this year. It will be conferred on three gram panchayats with the best planning across the country.

Also, a Local Government Directory Application developed by the Rural Development Ministry will be released for wide usage across all ministries to ensure inter-operability across their databases.

The directory will have unique codes for villages, panchayats and blocks.

"Recognizing the fact that it is important to motivate panchayats and individuals, the ministry has laid emphasis on incentivizing the good performing panchayats through the system of annual awards in various thematic areas.

"The ministry's efforts have yielded good results in terms of wider participation and a increased number of panchayats competing for the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar, Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar and e-Panchayat Puraskar," Tomar said.

(PTI)