Every zila parishad in Haryana would now have an independent chief executive officer (CEO) to work exclusively for the panchayat apex body. Earlier, deputy commissioners, additional deputy commissioners or sub divisional magistrates (SDMs) were given additional charge of CEOs of zila parishads.

“An arrangement of Rs 20 crore has also been made for the zila parishads from today only and they could spend it according to the requirement,” announced Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on Thursday while presiding over the first meeting of inter district council at Panchkula near here.

Several announcements were made by Manohar lal at the meeting to further strengthen the democratic system at the grassroot level in the state by decentralization of powers to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and local Bodies and also to ensure their active participation in the development process.

All presidents of zila parishad, all mayors of municipal corporations, all presidents of municipal councils and municipal committees and one sarpanch from each district of the state participated in the meeting. 

Earlier, a two minute silence was observed in the memory of Bharat Ratna former Prime Minister late   Atal Bihari Vajpayee and INlD MlA from Jind Hari Chand Midha.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister also announced that ADC and CEO, zila parishad would not be a single officer and appointed separately. They would draw their salaries from the account of zila parishad. The chairman, zila parishad would write the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) of CEO and it would be accepted by the State Government on the basis of the feedback given by the people, he said.

He further said that till now, chairman zila parishad is appointed as the chairman of district rural development authority (DRDA) and ADC as its CEO. Now, ADC would not be appointed as CEO, DRDA. The CEO zila parishad would act as CEO, DRDA.

Similarly, the deputy commissioners would no longer be the co-chairman of DRDA. With this, the members of zila parishad would be able to prepare schemes in consultation of CEO, he added.

The State Government is considering appointing a single officer to coordinate with all urban local units in the district, he said.

Mnaohar lal also announced that zila parishads would have their independent offices in the districts. At present, only seven districts have the offices of zila parishad. Apart from this, the office of DRDA would also be set up in the same building.

He suggested that an intra district council comprising the representatives of PRIs and local bodies should be set up on the pattern of inter district council to resolve various intra-district issues concerning the development works.

The Chief Minister also urged the local bodies to work with a sense of bringing uniformity in the development of areas and minimize discretion in allocation of funds.

He said that he had visited all 90 assembly constituencies of the state and made announcements as per the requirement of the areas.

“The state government has also decided to transfer selected works of various departments to zila parishads for its execution as per their capacity. Though funds for the same would be transferred to zila parishads, the detailed project report (DPR) of the project would be prepared by the State Government.  Among the works which could be got executed through zila parishads included construction of bus queue shelters, construction of passage, boundary wall, sheds and adequate arrangements of water in cremation grounds in the state under the Shivdham Vikas Yojna, erecting  mobile towers and  pavement of streets,” the Chief Minister said.

Apart from this, the PRIs would also be involved in social audit system to ensure effective monitoring of various low budget works being undertaken by the government at the grass root level, he said.

The Chief Minister further said that sufficient staff would be made available by the government so that the PRIs could work efficiently and independently. Each panchayat samiti would be provided a sanitary inspector to work on cleanliness. Similarly, engineers would also be made available to them to carryout technical works.

He also urged them to promote a sense of voluntarism  and rope in maximum number village youth and non government organizations (NGOs) in this work.

The budget of Zila Parishad had been increased from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs three crore and it was further increased to Rs 10 crore. Similarly, the budget of urban local bodies has also been increased manifold, he added.

Manohar lal also appreciated the suggestion given by the participants of the meeting during the open discussion and said that some were beyond expectations.  He said that these suggestions would be taken up in the next meeting of the council which would meet once in every three months atleast for first year. 

Speaking on this occasion, Finance Minister, Capt Abhimanyu urged the representatives of PRIs to focus on three Fs- function, functionaries and funds and prepare an atmosphere of cooperation and competition.