Lok Sabha Question No. 2735 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-27
Subject: Facility of e-Panchayat
Ministry: PANCHAYATI RAJ
Asked by: POONAMBEN HEMATBHAI MAADAM, BALABHADRA MAJHI, RAVNEET SINGH, R. GOPALAKRISHNAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2735 ANSWERED ON 27.12.2018

## FACILITY OF E-PANCHAYAT

2735.   SHRIMATI POONAMBEN MAADAM: SHRI BALABHADRA MAJHI: SHRI RAVNEET SINGH: SHRI R. GOPALAKRISHNAN:

Will the Minister of PANCHAYATI RAJ be pleased to state:

(a)  the  present  status  of  progress  made  to  provide  internet/e-Panchayat  facility  in  all  the Panchayats in the country, State/UT-wise including Punjab, Gujarat and Odisha;

(b)  the  number  of  Panchayats  which  have  been  provided  with  internet/e-Panchayat  facility and the number of Panchayats yet to achieve this facility, State/UT-wise including Gujarat and Odisha;

(c)  whether  any  proposal  for  modernization  of  Panchayats  in  the  State  of  Gujarat  is  under consideration and if so, the details and the present status thereof;

(d) whether the Union Government has been in consultation with the Government of Punjab in  this  regard  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the  time  by  which  all  Panchayats  in Punjab are likely to be digitised;

(e)  the  progress  achieved  under  the  Digital  India  Programme  in  rural  areas  to  enable feasibility of the said facility; and

(f) the time by which all the Panchayats in the country are likely to be equipped with the said facility?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ (SHRI PARSHOTTAM RUPALA)

(a) to (f)   For attaining the vision of Digital India, the Department of Telecommunications is implementing the BharatNet project  in a phased manner to create network to connect all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country by broadband. As part of BharatNet project, the last mile  connectivity  is  sought  to  provide  through  Wi-Fi  or  any  other  suitable  broadband technology to access broadband / internet services to all the GPs in the country. As informed by Department of Telecommunications under BharatNet project as on 16 th December 2018, total 1,16,543 Gram Panchayats (GPs) have been made Service Ready and the State/ UT wise list  including  Punjab,  Gujarat  and  Odisha  for  internet/e-Panchayat  facility  is  given  at Annexure and BharatNet Project is targeted to be completed by March 2019.

MoPR has been implementing e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) that seeks to transform the functioning of all the Panchayats, making  them  more  transparent, accountable  and  effective  as  organs  of  decentralized  self-governing  institutions.  Under  ePanchayat,  a  suite  of  core  software  applications  has  been  developed  to  address  various aspects of Panchayats' functioning including planning, budgeting, implementation, accounting, monitoring, social audit and delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licenses, tax collection etc.

Panchayat being a State subject, providing basic infrastructure including  computers and internet facility in all the Panchayats are primarily the responsibility of concerned State Government  /  Union  Territories  (UTs)  administration.  The  expenditure  on  modernization/ digitization of Panchayats is largely borne by States/UTs. However, Government has taken initiatives  for  modernization  /  digitization  of  the  Panchayats  by  providing  Computers/ internet/e-Panchayat facility in the country including Gujarat and Punjab.

Upto 10% of the Grants under Fourteenth Finance Commission can be used by Gram Panchayats (GPs) as technical and administrative support towards Operation & Maintenance and  Capital  expenditure.  Among  other  activities,  expenditure  towards  (i)  purchase  of computer and accessories as well as cost of Annual Maintenance in GPs, which do not have any  computer  at  present  and  (ii)  one-time  cost  for  providing  internet  connectivity  and recurring charges can also be incurred from the 10 % Operation & Maintenance expenditure.

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR)  launched  the restructured Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA), which aims at strengthening of  Panchayati  Raj  Institutions  (PRIs)  by  way  of  capacity  building  of  the  PRIs  and  its functionaries. The scheme provides financial support to States towards different activities e.g. capacity  building  and  training,  training  infrastructure,  human  resource  for  training,  eenablement, Information Education and Communication and Project Management Unit etc. relating to strengthening of Panchayats as included in their respective Annual Action Plan.

For the current year 2018-19 under RGSA scheme, Gujarat and Punjab has proposed activities  relating  to  Capacity  Building  &  Training, technical support to  GP, e-enablement,

Administrative  and  Financial  Data  Analysis  and  Planning  Cell,  Information  Education  & Communication and Project Management Unit and this Ministry has approved Rs. 27.9 Crore and Rs. 98.9 Crore for Gujarat and Punjab, respectively under RGSA.

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## Annexure

## ANNEXURE REFERRED IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (f) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2735 FOR ANSWER ON 27.12.2018

## State/UT wise - Details of BharatNet

| Sl. No.   | Name of the State/ UT    |   Service Ready GPs (including Block Head Quarter) |   GPs yet to be made Service Ready |
|-----------|--------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------|
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh           |                                               1215 |                              11651 |
| 2         | Arunachal Pradesh        |                                                 43 |                               1752 |
| 3         | Andaman &Nicobar Islands |                                                  0 |                                 69 |
| 4         | Assam*                   |                                               1652 |                                996 |
| 5         | Bihar                    |                                               5865 |                               2651 |
| 6         | Chandigarh               |                                                 13 |                                  0 |
| 7         | Chhattisgarh             |                                               4052 |                               6043 |
| 8         | Dadra &Nagar Haveli      |                                                 21 |                                  0 |
| 9         | Daman &Diu               |                                                 17 |                                  1 |
| 10        | Gujarat                  |                                               5119 |                               8777 |
| 11        | Haryana                  |                                               6123 |                                  0 |
| 12        | Himachal Pradesh         |                                                226 |                               3011 |
| 13        | Jammu &Kashmir           |                                                263 |                               4047 |
| 14        | Jharkhand                |                                               2312 |                               2092 |
| 15        | Karnataka                |                                               6110 |                                  8 |
| 16        | Kerala                   |                                               1129 |                                  0 |
| 17        | Lakshadweep              |                                                  0 |                                 10 |
| 18        | Madhya Pradesh           |                                              12689 |                              10206 |
| 19        | Maharashtra              |                                              15126 |                              12810 |
| 20        | Manipur*                 |                                                255 |                               2530 |
| 21        | Meghalaya**              |                                                122 |                               1667 |
| 22        | Mizoram**                |                                                 23 |                                740 |
| 23        | Nagaland**               |                                                 86 |                                908 |
| 24        | Odisha                   |                                               3501 |                               2767 |
| 25        | Puducherry               |                                                101 |                                  0 |
| 26        | Punjab                   |                                               7911 |                               4967 |
| 27        | Rajasthan                |                                               8452 |                               1439 |
| 28        | Sikkim                   |                                                 14 |                                162 |
| 29        | Telangana                |                                               2047 |                               6630 |
| 30        | Tamil Nadu               |                                                  0 |                              12524 |
| 31        | Tripura*                 |                                                527 |                                479 |
| 32        | Uttar Pradesh            |                                              27940 |                              27155 |
| 33        | Uttarakhand              |                                               1508 |                               6031 |
| 34        | West Bengal              |                                               2081 |                               1264 |
| Total     |                          |                                             116543 |                             133387 |

Source: As per available data provided by Department of Telecommunications

*States having both Panchayats and Traditional Local Bodies

** States having only Traditional Local Bodies