The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : Council of Panchayati Raj Ministers to be set up

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Monday, Dec 20, 2004

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Other States - Rajasthan

Council of Panchayati Raj Ministers to be set up

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, DEC. 19 . The Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar, today announced the formation of a Council of the Panchayati Raj Ministers of all States to ensure the implementation of recommendations made in seven round-table conferences on various aspects of the subject held during the last five months.

The Council would be a deliberative body and strive for joint acceptance by the Centre and the States of the recommendations made for empowerment, strengthening and effective implementation of the Panchayati Raj model. Another committee of the Chief Secretaries and Panchayati Raj Secretaries will meet every month to evolve modalities of implementation.

Mr. Aiyar, making the announcement at the end of the seventh three-day round-table meet on the information technology-enabled e-governance and capacity building and training for panchayats here, said the Centre intended to evolve the Panchayati Raj bodies as the self-governing institutions and not just the implementing agencies.

He said the 18 dimensions of Panchayati Raj dealt with during the series of round tables related to the devolution of powers in various spheres to panchayats. "The vision for Panchayati Raj formulated during the conference makes it clear that the decentralisation alone will not serve the purpose,'' he added.

Mr. Aiyar said he felt no need for the direct Central funding to the Panchayati Raj institutions and the funding could continue through the State Governments in the spirit of "cooperative federalism''. He pointed out that the Central Government's common minimum programme had emphasised that the funds should reach panchayats without leakages and the route taken made no difference.

However, the Union Minister said the funding exercise needed to be tracked electronically to ensure that the money reached the targeted groups without diversion. With this objective, the Centre was setting up a small task force for developing an e-tracking system, he added.

Mr. Aiyar emphasised that there would be no paucity of funds and resources for enabling panchayats to function effectively at the grassroot level. "Panchayats should take decisions, prepare action plans and implement schemes. This is expected of them in the constitutional scheme,'' he affirmed while pointing out that the Central allocation to the States for a few schemes of panchayats was to the tune of Rs. 32,000 crores. A compendium of resolutions of the seven round tables, making 150 recommendations, was released on the occasion. The exercise started with the first round-table meet held in Kolkata in July-end this year to deal with the effective devolution of functions, functionaries and finances to panchayats. Five other round tables were later organised in Mysore, Raipur, Chandigarh, Srinagar and Guwahati. The subjects taken up during these conferences ranged from planning and implementation and Panchayati Raj jurisprudence to annual reports, election to panchayat bodies, constitution of Gram Sabhas, devolution of powers, reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and women, and IT-enabled e-governance.

The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Manik Rao Gevit, represented the Union Territories in the Jaipur round table. The Panchayati Raj Ministers from various States participating in conference termed the series of conferences a milestone in democracy and assured that their respective Governments would make all attempts to bring the recommendations into force shortly.

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