Soon,districts will have centres to pool details

With the dual purpose of strengthening the Panchayati Raj institutions and establishing a set-up to centralise all panchayats activities...

With the dual purpose of strengthening the Panchayati Raj institutions and establishing a set-up to centralise all panchayats activities,the Department of Panchayati Raj Uttar Pradesh is all set to create centres for local self governance across all districts in the state. While the first phase will see the creation of such centres in districts covered under the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF),the second phase will have the state government extend the project to other districts in the state.

Even as the state government plans to make the first-phase centres functional after the panchayat elections in September,the department has almost completed construction work on around 11 such centres so far. Project director,BRGF,K M Tewari said: These centres will primarily serve as a hub of all activities in gram panchayats. They will not only have details of budget allocation and expenditure of panchayats,but will also hold training programmes for gram pradhans,besides providing details on how the schemes can be best managed at the village level.

The BRGF scheme,initiated by the Centre,is being implemented in 34 districts of the state. The department is setting up new panchayat bhawans with Central funds in these districts. These computerised centres will be armed with PriaSoft software created exclusively for panchayats by the NIC UP . This will help the panchayats update their expenditure information and all other details on a regular basis to directly link them to the district and state offices, said a department official. These centres will also have a library to store the literature related to panchayats.

The UNDP will also support the project through its Capacity Development of Local Self Governance programme by designing the panchayat training manuals and also supporting the training programme for gram pradhans. Even after three panchayat elections,the training for all the elected representatives in panchayats is still not complete. Hence,with UNDPs support,we aim to complete the training within six months of the representatives being elected and then,regular trainings for different schemes will be held, said the official.

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