Exporting panchayat expertise to S Africa

Although Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Mani Shanker Aiyer, has complaints regarding the lack of public interest in panchayats...

Although Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Mani Shanker Aiyer, has complaints regarding the lack of public interest in panchayats, he is happy to lend his ministry’s expertise in local governance to other countries. A 10-member team led by the Union Secretary for Panchayati Raj, Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, will be sharing the Indian experience of local governance through panchayats and urban local bodies with South Africa.

The visit follows repeated requests made by the South African government, evincing interest to learn about “citizen service delivery through local governance” in India.

In order to provide a complete picture of local governance policies, officials from the Ministry of Rural Development, Urban Development, and State Secretaries from Kerala and Gujarat have been included in the team. Senior functionaries from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company, and one zila panchayat CEO from Chhattisgarh are also part of the delegation.

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The team also includes experts on fiscal decentralisation from the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and experts from project handling agencies like National Rural Road Development Agency.

Ghosh has been meeting with her team members to discuss specific issues. The MCD representative will be sharing his experience in citizen service delivery in an urban setting like Delhi and the zila panchayat CEO from Chhattisgarh will give talk about citizen services in rural settings.

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