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Friday, Jul 30, 2004

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M.P. Government to amend Panchayati Raj Act

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, JULY 29. The Madhya Pradesh Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development, Narendra Singh Tomar, today read out a policy statement in the State Assembly to announce the State Government's decision to go in for an amendment to the Panchayati Raj and Gram Swaraj Act to strengthen the

three-tier Panchayati Raj system and more particularly the Gram Sabha (village general body) at the village level.

Later briefing newspersons, Mr. Tomar said that since problems were being encountered because of lacunae in the existing system it had been decided to replace the separate village-level committees for development, education, health, infrastructure, security, agriculture, public property and social justice with two new committees--theVillage Development Committee and the village Panch-ja Committee— to be formed by the Gram Sabha. Panch-ja stands for five Js representing "jungle, jal, jameen, janwar and jan" (forest, water, land, animals, livestock and human resources).

Mr. Tomar said it had been the experience that the Gram Sabhas were not meeting regularly every month due to lack of quorum or other reasons. Hence it has been decided to hold the Gram Sabha meetings every three months. To ensure the smooth functioning of the Gram Sabha, there would be a team of government officers and employees to assist them. The proposed alternative system will help in the proper development of villages, he added.

To a pointed query, Mr. Tomar said that the role of the village Sarpanch would be all encompassing and went on to add that the village development committees and the village panch-ja committees would be answerable to the village Panchayat.

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M.P. Government to amend Panchayati Raj Act