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EQUALITY INDIA NEWS / A SHAKTI VAHINI RESEARCH INITIATIVE
The National Panchayati Raj Diwas was commemorated today with a coll to work collectively and sincerely in empowering the Panchati Raj Institituons in the country. On ths occation Union Minister of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh gave away the Rashtryira Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar 2011, e Panchayat Puraskar 2011 and the prizes for The National Level Winners o Drawing Rainting and Essay Competitions held during The “year of the Gram Sabha “ ( 2nd October 2009-2nd October 2011) .
Congratulating the award winners on the occasion Shri Deshmukh said the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 that came into force with effect from 24th April, 1993 has institutionalized Panchayati Raj through the Village, Intermediate and District levels Panchayats. The impact of the 73rd Amendment in rural India is very much visible as it has changed power equations significantly. Accordingly, Government of India, in consultation with the States, decided to celebrate 24th April as National Panchayat Day. He said this year, the theme of the event is “Roadmap for the Panchayati Raj(2011-16): A National Perspective” and “Positioning the Gram Sabhas at the core of Panchayati Raj for true self-governance and ensuring transparency and accountability of the Gram Panchayats” .
The Minister said the Panchayati Raj Ministry Ministry has, in consultation with the States and Union Ministries finalized the Roadmap for strengthening of the Panchayati Raj for the next five year, to almost coincide with the 12th Five Year Plan and hoped that the Roadmap would provide effective decentralization agenda to the States and Union Ministries. Roadmap sets out strategies and action plan for real devolution of functions and funds, efficient and accountable Panchayats and true self-governance. He said the Information Technology is a necessary tool for transparency, disclosure of information and social audit, efficient delivery of services, improving internal management of Panchayats, procurement etc. And the first ever e-Panchayat Puraskar are being given to those states who have implemented Model Accounting System for the Panchayats and PRIASoft well he hoped that this award will motivate other states to adopt PRIASoft urgently which is a highly user-friendly accounting software and would put daily receipt and expenditure of the Panchayats on line.
Shri Deshmukh said the most important aspect of self-governance is devolution of Functions, Funds and Functionaries to the Panchayats. It is necessary for the states to expedite devolution of 3 Fs. The Union Government also has a critical role in the devolution of 3Fs because it makes increasingly large fiscal transfers to the States in the functional domain of the PRIs, mainly through CSSs and ACAs.
The detail of award winners is as under:
RashtryiraGaurav Gram SabhaPuraskar 2011:
Gram Sabha, the key to the self-governance, transparent and accountable functioning of the Gram Panchayat, and a forum that ensures direct participative democracy, offers equal opportunity to all citizens including the poor, the women and the marginalized, to discuss and criticize, approve or reject, proposals of the Gram Panchayat and also assess its performance.
To highlight the importance of Gram sabha in self-governance and transparent and accountable functioning of the Gram Panchayat, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj had observed the “Year of the Gram Sabha” , from 2nd October 2009 to 2nd October 2010. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has issued specific guidelines to make Gram Sabha a vibrant forum for promoting planned economic and social development of the villages in a transparent way.
In order to appreciate and devise an appropriate structure of incentives and to recognize and encourage the Panchayats for outstanding performance through effective Gram Sabhas, especially in respect of improvements in the social and economic structure of the village, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has instituted National level Awards for Best Gram Sabhas and name it as “ RashtriyaGaurav Gram Sabha” .
The broad objective for instituting this award is toincentivise excellence in performance of Gram Panchayats through effective gram sabhas. It is expected that the Award will not only be a step to energise the Gram Sabahswill encourage the Gram Panchayats to organise more gram sabhas and encourage people’s participation. The prize money for this award is Rs Ten lakhs ( Rs 10 lakhs only). The Award money will be utilized by the Panchayats for public purposes such as augmentation of civic services like primary education, primary health care, safe drinking water, public utilities; provision rural infrastructure in the Panchayat jurisdiction etc.
It is very interesting to note that among the nominated Gram Panchayats for the RGGS Award 2011, three GP are headed by female Sarpanches. This list of awradees present an interesting representation of efforts made by the Elected Women representatives in excellence observance of “The Year of the Gram Sabha”.
This year the following Gram Sabha s and Gram Panchayats have merited for RGGS 2011:
| S.No. |
Name of the District |
Name of the Block/Taluka |
Name of the Gram Panchayat/ Gram Sabha Nominated |
State |
Name of the Sarpanch(recipient of the Award) |
| 1 |
Belgaum |
Athani |
Shiraguppi |
Karnataka |
Sri VineshIragoudaPatil |
| 2 |
South Goa |
Sanguem |
KirlapalDabal |
Goa |
Shri Rama Sonugaonkar |
| 3 |
Rajkot |
Padadhari |
Depaliya |
Gujarat |
SmtRasilabenDalsaniya |
| 4 |
Rohtak |
Rohtak |
Assan |
Haryana |
Shri Raj Singh |
| 5 |
Jalgaon |
Chopda |
Chahardi |
Maharashtra |
Smt. SangitabaiKoli |
| 6 |
Ajmer |
Shrinagar |
Aradaka |
Rajasthan |
SmtRaheesaKhatoon |
| 7 |
South District |
Melli |
Mellidara-Paiyong |
Sikkim |
Shri Ganesh Rahi |
I. e Panchayat Puraskar 2011
This Year a national award in the category of e panchayatPuraskar has been instituted by MoPr in order to appreciate the excellent achievent of various States in the implementation of Model Accounting system for Panbchayats ( MAS) and PRIASoft. A prize money of Rs 50 lakhs for first prize ,Rs 30 lakhs for second and Rs 20 lakhs for third prize will be given to the winning states. It is expected that the prize money would be uti;lised for further strengthening / development of MAS/ PRIASoft initiative in the state viz., provision of computers , training to concerned functionaries etc. It is pertinent to mention here that the MAS and PRIASoft has enhanced accountability and transparency of the Panchayats and also institutionalized robust but simple finanacial management system. This year One First , two Second prizes and three third prizes are being given.The following States will receive the e Panchayat Puraskar:
|
STATE |
PRIZE |
PRIZE MONEY |
| 1 |
ODISHA STATE |
FIRST PRIZE |
RS 50 LAKHS |
| 2 |
MAHARASHTRA |
SECOND PRIZE |
RS 30 LAKHS |
| 2 |
TRIPURA |
SECOND PRIZE |
RS. 30 LAKHS |
| 3 |
PUNJAB STATE |
THIRD PRIZE |
RS 20 LAKH |
| 53 |
ASSAM STATE |
THIRD PRIZE |
RS. 20 LAKHS |
II. Prizes for the National level winners of Drawing Painting and Essay Competitions held during the “Year of the Gram Sabha “ ( 2nd October 2009-2nd October 2011)
A nationwide sensitization programme was organized by Ministry of Panchayati Raj during the “ Year of Gram Sabha” ( from 2nd October 2009-2nd October 2010). For this, the services of Directorate of field Publicity ( DFP) , MoI&B was availed for mass media awareness campaign at the grass root level, followed by national level for Drawing painting and Essay competitions.
The DFP through their Regional units conducted one programme per Unit, in one district under their jurisdiction. The special programme designed by DFP for MoPR focused on Sensitizing the people on Panchayati Raj through film and other inputs material, oral communication based on various people centric schemes and important aspects of Gram Sabhaands Gram Panchayats followed by national painting and Essay competition open for all.
The main objective of these competition were , in one hand, to sensitize people on aspects of Gram Sabha / Gram Panchayat and various schemes of Panchayati Raj and also to seek peoples participation including one, in the last mile , to participate in this mass campaign for the Year of Gram Sabha.The participation of younger generation especially from remote areas , in these were overwhelming.
The District and State level winners were judged by the Satte Panchayat Departments and Regional Units of DFP. Among the state level winners , the national winners of Drawing Painting and Essay competition on “ Active Gram Sabha”. The following are the national level winners.
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