Lok Sabha Question No. 3510 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-10
Subject: Functioning of Panchayats
Ministry: PANCHAYATI RAJ
Asked by: Rita Bahuguna Joshi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3510 ANSWERED ON 10.08.2021

## FUNCTIONING OF PANCHAYATS

## 3510. SHRIMATI RITA BAHUGUNA JOSHI:

Will the Minister of PANCHAYATI RAJ be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has been augmenting and facilitating the State Governments for creating better and adequate infrastructure for the Panchayats of the country in general and Panchayats of the State of Uttar Pradesh in particular;
- (b) if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the details of steps undertaken by the Government for enhancing transparency and accountability in the functioning of Panchayats?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR PANCHAYATI RAJ (SHRI KAPIL MORESHWAR PATIL)

(a)    & (b) 'Panchayat' being 'local government', which is part of the State List of Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India is a State subject and is the responsibility of the States. However, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) supplements the efforts of the States, including Uttar Pradesh through its schemes and programmes. The following programmes are also being implemented for  providing  adequate  infrastructural  facilities  to  Panchayats  including  Uttar Pradesh by the Government of India:

(i)  The  Fourteenth  Finance Commission (FFC) for the award period 2015-20 allocated Rs. 2,00,292.20 crore to Gram Panchayats, amounting to an assistance of Rs. 488 per capita per annum  at  an  aggregate  level  to  the  Gram  Panchayats  constituted  under  Part  IX  of  the Constitution to 26 States including Uttar Pradesh. The Grants were meant for delivering basic services, namely, water supply, sanitation, sewerage, solid waste management, storm water drainage,  maintenance  of  community  assets,  roads,  footpath,  street  lighting,  burial  and cremation grounds etc and any other basic services entrusted under State Legislations etc.

(ii) Under Fifteenth Finance Commission (XVFC) interim award period 2020-21, grants to the tune of Rs. 60,750 crores have been recommended by the Commission for all tiers of the Rural Local  Bodies  (RLBs)  in  28  States  including  Uttar  Pradesh.  50%  of  the  allocation  is  Basic (Untied) Grants to be used by the local bodies for location-specific felt needs, except for salary or other establishment expenditure. Rest 50% allocation is Tied Grants to be used for the basic services of (a) sanitation and maintenance of open -defection free (ODF) status and (b) supply of drinking water, rain water harvesting and water recycling.

(iii)  Ministry  of  Panchayati  Raj  (MoPR)  under  the  restructured  scheme  of  Rashtriya  Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) being implemented with effect from 2018-19, is providing financial support  for  certain  infrastructural  facilities  for  GPs  such  as  Gram  Panchayat  Bhawans, computers and peripherals. Under RGSA scheme till date Rs. 342.6807 crore has been released to Uttar Pradesh. (iv) Implementation of computerization of GPs is being done under various programmes such as RGSA, FFC, etc. An estimated 58753 Gram Panchayats in Uttar Pradesh have computers at present. (v) To  facilitate adequate  infrastructure, BharatNet  project  is  being  implemented  by Department of Telecommunications in a Phased manner to create network to connect all the Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) (approx. 2.71 lakh RLBs) by broadband in the country. As on 16.07.2021, a total number of 1,58,266 RLBs (including Block Head Quarters) have been made Service Ready in the country, including 31,776 GPs of Uttar Pradesh. (vi) Towards provision of online services in the rural areas and GPs, Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been setup through a 'Common Service Centre - Special Purpose Vehicle' (CSCSPV), a society of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The key objective of CSCs is  to  deliver  various  citizen  centric  services,  such  as  Government  to  Citizen  (G2C), Business  to  Citizen  (B2C)  services,  financial  inclusion  services,  educational  services,  skill development services etc. (c) MoPR is implementing e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) under which a suite of core  common  applications  have  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, etc. to  make  them  more  transparent,  accountable  and  effective  as organs of decentralized selfgoverning institutions. Further, for enhancing transparency, accountability of Panchayats across the country and strengthening their financial management, Ministry of Panchayati Raj has launched the Audit April 2020 for carrying out online Audits of Panchayat accounts which facilitates the auditing of accounts and provisions also for maintaining audit records that

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Online application on 15 th have been carried out.