Current Affairs: Every Panchayat to have
a Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra
and Panchayat Ghar over the next three years :
Dr. C.P.Joshi
All the Gram Panchayats across the country will
have Panchayat Ghar and a Bharat Nirman Rajiv
Gandhi Sewa Kendra over the next three years.
This was announced by the Union Panchayati
Raj Minister Dr. C.P.Joshi at a National
Workshop on NREGA ,“ NREGA: A step
towards Governance Reform, Transparency
and Accountability” in Vigyan Bhawan here
today organized by the Union Ministry Of Rural
Development on the occasion of the birth
anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi .
There are 2.52 lakh Gram Panchayats
across the country. The proposed Panchayat Ghars
have been envisaged as the mini secretariat as a
forum for the rural people to meet , share and
discuss their issues, to provide logistic support
and as a record keeping facility center. The Bharat
Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra shall be a
single window for providing the information on
the NREGS and shall provide feedback on the
quality of implementation of the program. The
idea is to slowly move on the wage employment
to self employment by providing skill
development facilities to the rural people and in
the process give a fillip to the rural economy. The
proposed design of the Bharat Nirman Seawa
Kendra at every Gram Panchayat was unveiled on
this occasion by Shri Rahul Gandhi , the guest of
honour of the workshop.
In his address, Dr. Joshi underlined the
need to ensure effective implementation of
the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act and its processes. Spelling out NREGA as the
new model of E-Governance he stressed the need
to integrate technology for the benefit of the rural
people. He emphasized that the non negotiable
elements of the act would remain as it is . The
Minister called for timely payment of wages, to
leverage the potential benefits of NREGA and to
strengthen the role of Panchayats as the principal
authorities for planning and implementation of the
Act. He announced that a consensus has been
arrived at on the following issues by the four
working groups on decentralization , sustainable
development, role of technology and public
accountability :
Every Panchayat to have a Panchayat Ghar
and Bharat Nirman Rajeev Gandhi Sewa Kendra
over the next three years;Ensuring 100 days of
work on demand;Timely payment of
wages;Addressing the issue of uneven payments
in different states;Enforcing the accountability
more effectively;Involving Citizens in monitoring
in the monitoring of NREGs by setting up a group
of 100 eminent persons from media, law and
social activists;Creation of a National
Employment Guarantee Mission to provide
technical support to NREGs;Replication
of Andhra Pradesh Model of Social Audit on a
larger scale andImplementing and learning from
the best practice models.
The issue of how to make effective use of
Lok Sewaks to ensure transparency and
accountability would be discussed and debated
further before taking a final decision , the Minister
added. Paying glowing tributes to the former
Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi for his vision of a
decentralized governance in the panchayati raj
,Dr. Joshi announced that every year the progress
of the program would be reviewed a day before
his birth anniversary every year.
The dignitary present in the workshop
were Ministers of State for Rural Development
Shri Pradip Jain Aditya, Shri Shishir Adhikari,
Ms. Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Finance
Shri Namo Narayan Meena, Minister of State for
Petroleum Shri Jitin Prasada, Chairman of the
Unique Identification Authority Of India(UIADI)
Chairman Shri Nandan Nilekani, Shri Mihir Shah,
Member Planning Commission and the former
Chairman of the National Knowledge
Commission Sam Pitroda among others. Several
MPs, social activists, officials from both
the Central Governments and the States, and other
key stakeholders who actively participated in the
deliberations.
Another highlight of the function was the
announcement of a collaboration between Unique
Identification Authority Of India (UIADI) and
NREGA by Shri Nandan Nilekani , the Chairman
of the Unique Identification Authority Of India
(UIADI). While praising NREGA as a
phenomenal program, he emphasized the need to
connect the unique identification process with
every job card holder under the NREGA Scheme.
The linkages with UID is possible in job cards,
muster roll and bank accounts of NREGA
beneficiaries. The process would eliminate
duplicate job cards, ghost beneficiaries while
facilitating easy bank account opening, tracking
the mobility of NREGA workers and ensuring a
better monitoring of the system, he added.