Describing Haryana as a pioneer State in setting up Inter District Council (IDC) for ensuring development at the grass root level through the coordinated efforts of Panchayati Raj Insitutions (PRIs), Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday announced to delegate more powers to Zila Parishads to further empower them.
Zila Parishads would be allowed to take up monitoring and other works under various schemes namely Establishment of Eco Clubs, Swaran Jayanti Programme-Cultural Programme for Students, Debates and Seminars on Harmony, National Cretche Scheme, setting up of bio gas plant, maintenance of building of government primary schools, scheme of promotion of crops diversification and Dr B.R Ambedkar Housing Navinikaran Yojana.
Presiding over the 2nd meeting of Inter-District Council (Rural) in Panchkula, in which Deputy Chief Minister, Dushyant Chautala who also holds the portfolio of Development and Panchayats Department was also present, Khattar also announced that the Haryana Rural Development Authority (HRDA) would be made more effective for ensuring the planned development of rural areas.
He said a website would be launched soon having details of all villages of the State, their population and maps adding that the villagers would be able to upload their suggestions and complaints on this website and the concerned departments would take action accordingly.
Khattar said the State Government is in the process of abolishing the system of Lal Dora in villages of the State. In the same series, the Sirsi village of district Karnal has been declared free from Lal Dora. He said that with this, the owner would have the lawful right of his property within in the Lal Dora and he could sell his property and also take loan on the same. Stating that the State Government is giving special emphasis on the solar energy, he said that those gram panchayats which have adequate funds available with them could set up solar power plants on the Panchayat land for generating electricity for street lighting and running tubewells.
The Chief Minister said that apart from making the Zila Parishads financially empowered, the State Governent is also working towards their capacity building. He also announced that with a view to accelerate the pace of development activities, the XEN Panchayati Raj would be shifted to Zila Parishad.
Exhorting the PRIs to generate their own sources of revenue in addition to the budget released by the state government, he said that the State Government intends to provide budget ranging from Rs 20 crore to Rs 25 crore to the Zila Parishads on the basis of population and geographical area. An amount of Rs 184 crore has been released to the Zila Parishads during the last financial year.
The Chief Minister said that each Zila Parishad in the State would constitute a special wing to monitoring the functioning of existing angwandi centres and Sub Health Centres and submit report to the department concerned. He said that 4 to 5 anganwadi centres in each district be converted into creche with better facilities. He also directed to explore the possibilities for the opening of play schools in anganwadi centres in few villages on pilot basis.
The Chief Minister said that the aim of setting up of Inter District Council (IDC) is to make an arrangement to ensure that the benefit of Government works reach to the beneficiaries at the grass root level.
Earlier speaking on this occasion, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said that the Zila Parishads should give special focus on the development aspect. Advocating for the further strengthening of PRIs, he said that there are several big projects that could be delegated to the level of Zila Parishads. He said that concrete suggestions by the PRI representatives are must for preparing a self sustaining model. He congratulated the present State Government for taking step towards decentralization of powers by transferring the works of various departments to Zila Parishads.
Chautala said that after the State Budget in the Vidhan Sabha, all the Zila Parishads should hold meetings to discuss financial aspects and send their budgets to the Government after passing the same in their House meetings so that they could get the budget for development works. He urged the Zila Parishads and their CEOs to evolve an effective system for further empowering the PRI system in the State that could become a role model for other states in the country.