Focus: GS II- Government policies and Interventions
Why in News?
Under the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan scheme, Rs 1,538.32 crore has been released to States/ UTs during the last three years
About Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA)
Nodal : Ministry of Panchayati Raj
- It is central government scheme that aims at making rural local bodies self-sustainable, financially stable and more efficient.
- Restructured RGSA to focus on training, building infrastructure, stepping up initiatives for e-governance under e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) to deliver Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- The scheme will extend to all states/UTs of country and will also include institutions of rural local government in non-Part IX areas, where Panchayats do not exist.
- Under the scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan there is no provision for forming new Panchayats. Formation or reorganization of Panchayats is done by the respective States/ Union Territories as per their requirement.
Objectives:
- To train and build capacity of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
- It seeks to address critical gaps that hinder success of Panchayats by enhancing their capacities and effectiveness, and promote devolution of powers and responsibilities.
- It seeks to shift the participative planning, prepared from the grassroots level upwards and strengthen panchayat level governance with more appropriate capacity building.
Financial implications:
The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs.5911 crore with the Central Share of Rs.3700 crore and that of State Share of Rs.2211 crore.
No. of beneficiaries:
Around 60 lakh Elected Representatives, Functionaries and other stakeholders of Rural Local Bodies including Traditional Bodies across the country will be direct beneficiaries of the scheme.
Major impact including employment generation potential:
- The approved scheme of RGSA will help more than 2.78 lakh Rural Local Bodies including Traditional Bodies across the country to develop governance capabilities to deliver on SDGs through inclusive local governance with focus on optimum utilisation of available resources.
- The key principles of SDGs, i.e. leaving no one behind, reaching the farthest first and universal coverage, along with gender equality will be embedded in the design of all capacity building interventions including trainings, training modules and materials.
- Priority will be given to subjects of national importance principally under themes, namely:
- Poverty free and enhanced livelihood in villages,
- Healthy Village
- Child Friendly Village
- Water Sufficient Village
- Clean and Green Village
- Self-Sufficient Infrastructure in Village
- Socially Secured Village
- Village with Good Governance
- Engendered Development in Village.
- As Panchayats have representation of Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and women, and are institutions closest to the grassroots, strengthening Panchayats will promote equity and inclusiveness, along with Social Justice and economic development of the community.
- Increased use of e-governance by PRIs will help achieve improved service delivery and transparency.
- The scheme will strengthen Gram Sabhas to function as effective institutions with social inclusion of citizens particularly the vulnerable groups.
- It will establish the institutional structure for capacity building of PRIs at the national, state and district level with adequate human resources and infrastructure.
- Panchayats will progressively be strengthened through incentivisation on the basis of nationally important criteria to recognise roles of Panchayats in attainment of SDGs and to inculcate spirit of healthy competition.
- No permanent post will be created under the scheme but need based contractual human resources may be provisioned for overseeing the implementation of the scheme and providing technical support to States/UTs for achieving goals under the scheme.
