Lok Sabha Question No. 70 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-02
Subject: Infrastructure Facilities to the Panchayats in Bihar
Ministry: PANCHAYATI RAJ
Asked by: Alok Kumar Suman

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PANCHAYATI RAJ

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 70

ANSWERED ON 02.02.2021

## Infrastructure Facilities to the Panchayats in Bihar

## 70.     DR. ALOK KUMAR SUMAN:

Will the Minister of PANCHAYATI RAJ be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  it  is  a  fact  that  the  Government  is  implementing  various  schemes  to  provide adequate infrastructure facilities to the Panchayats in Bihar especially in district Gopalganj;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to provide computer with network connectivity in all districts of Bihar for adequate functioning of panchayats;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the steps taken to digitize district and village panchayats for greater devolution of powers to panchayats?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF PANCHAYATI RAJ (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a)  to  (d)  Panchayat  being  a  State  subject,  providing  infrastructure  facilities  to  Gram Panchayat (GPs) is primarily the responsibility of concerned State Government. However, under  the  restructured  scheme  of  Rashtriya  Gram  Swaraj  Abhiyan  (RGSA)  being implemented w.e.f.  2018-19,  this  Ministry  has  been  supplementing  the  efforts  of  State governments in this regard by providing financial support to States including Bihar for certain  infrastructural  facilities  such  as  Gram  Panchayat  Bhawans,  computers  and peripherals for GPs on a limited scale.

The details of no. of GPs for which computers approved under Annual Action Plan of RGSA since 2018-19 to 2020-21 to the State of Bihar is as under:

|   2018-19 |   2019-20 |   2020-21 |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|
|       352 |       531 |       531 |

(e)  Towards  steps  taken  to  digitize  district  and  village  panchayats,  the  Ministry  of Panchayati Raj (MoPR)  is implementing e-GramSwaraj and other e-Governance

Applications under e-Panchayat  Mission Mode Project (MMP) which address planning, budgeting, implementation, accounting, monitoring, social audit  and delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licences, etc. thereby improving transparency, accountability  and  governance  at  Panchayat  level  and  are  listed  at Annexure .  These applications are available to all the Gram Panchayats. The State legislatures are to consider the  29  Subjects  illustratively  set  out  in  the  Eleventh  Schedule  for  devolution  to  the Panchayats.

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## e-Governance Applications

|   Sl. No. | Application                      | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|-----------|----------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | eGramSwaraj                      | The application has been developed amalgamating the functionalities of currently available applications in the e-panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP). The application subsumes the e-FMS applications comprising of PlanPlus, ActionSoft, PRIASoft and National Asset Directory (NAD) along with the Area Profiler Application with LGD acting as the underlying Panchayat directory. The application aims to bring in better transparency and strengthening the e-Governance through decentralized planning, process reporting and work-based accounting. Salient features of eGramSwaraj Application are  Work-flow Enabled  Assets available on Gram Manchitra GIS,  Supports multi-tenancy; multiple tenants in the same instance and  Strong Authentication Mechanism based on open source technologies. |
|         2 | National Panchayat Portal (NPP)  | Dynamic Web site for each Panchayat (i.e. ZPs, BPs & GPs) to share information in public domain. NPP facilitates seamless access to the information and services provided by the local bodies. NPP creates dynamic websites for State Panchayati Raj Departments and each Panchayat can configure their website to be accessed using a URL of their choice.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|         3 | Local Government Directory (LGD) | Captures all details of local governments and assigns unique code. Also maps Panchayats with Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
|         4 | ServicePlus                      | A dynamic metadata-based service delivery portal to help in providing electronic delivery of all services in all States. The functionality of the erstwhile Grievance Redressal Application has also been subsumed into this Application.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |

## Annexure

## 6 Trainings Management

-  Streamlines workflows, reduces workload of Government departments and improves efficiency in service delivery

## Benefits to Citizens

-  Provides an integrated single, unified portal to the citizens (single-window)
-  Enables citizens to query on their entitlement to various services provided across the country on a single window.
-  Provides services which are fully aligned with the actual service delivery processes/rules and thus ensures correctness/validity of certificate.
-  Workflow for issue of certificate can be configured dynamically based on the applicant's requirement.
-  Captures all relevant documents from citizens only once and thus provides convenience to the citizen.
- 5 Social Audit and Meeting Management (SAMM)

Social Audit application aims to understand, measure and verify work under different schemes done by the Panchayat and further to improve social  performance  of  respective  Panchayats.  Social  Audit  process involves  Auditing  of  various  schemes  by  Social  Auditor  and  Social Audit Facilitator and submission of audit report

The Application facilitates Social Audit process by providing requested information to social auditor, captures audit report and action taken by Panchayat/Local body.

Portal to address training needs of stakeholders including citizens, their feedback, training materials etc.

It is a single platform for government officials and elected representatives  in  a  State  to  log  in  their  training  needs  and  training organizations  including  Government  to  address  and  manage  these requirements.

The Application also maintains a database of participants (viz. Elected Representatives/ Department  officials). There is a provision for capturing feedback from the participants thereby using them in further analysis.

- 7 GramManchitra (GIS) A spatial layer to view all data generated by all Applications on a GIS map for decision-making and visualizing interventions.

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