Proposals worth Rs118 crore were given the approval during the steering committee meet on the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA).
The meet was chaired by the State chief secretary Subhash Kumar at the Secretariat in Dehradun on Friday. The Chief Secretary said 29 departmental powers were to be transferred to the Panchayats. For this, he has asked for proposal after studying the situation in other States, especially those in the hills. It was stated during the meeting that in order to strengthen the Panchayats, 1405 Panchayat development officers and data entry operators would be appointed in the first phase. It was mentioned that for a population of every 5000 people, there will be one Panchayat Development Officer and one data entry operator.
Also one Panchayat assistant/junior clerk will be appointed for 2570 Panchayats, while 285 junior engineers would be allotted to 95 development blocks. All these 5665 posts would be filled through outsourcing. Besides this, there would be construction of 125 Panchayat Buildings, repair of 1500 Panchayat buildings, setting up of one State level and two division level resource centres and also 1000 computers will be provided.
Under this program, an approximate 200 Panchayats out of 770 village Panchayats would have improved village hygiene, street lighting, toilets, drinking water and basic amenities provided. Issue of family registers, rations cards and birth or death certificates would also be computerised. Provisions will also be made to put the meetings of Panchayats online and add other new services.
The proposal after acceptance will be forwarded to the Union Government. The money for this project will be funded 25 percent by the State Government and 75 percent by the Union Government. Present at the meeting were Secretary, Rural Development, Vinod Fonia, Additional Secretary, Panchayati Raj, CS Napalchayal, Joint Director, Panchayati Raj, Vipin Kumar and other officers.