Panchayats to get financial powers

The government will soon introduce a constitution amendment bill in Parliament to facilitate speedy and effective devolution of financial and administrative powers to Panchayati Raj Institutions(PRIs).

This was indicated today by Rural Development Minister Kashiram Rana in the meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to his ministry.

He said the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act had only made holding of regular elections for the civic bodies mandatory. It had, however, left the issue of devolution of financial powers to the discretion of the state legislatures. The progress on this front had fallen far short of the expectations, Rana said.

The country has about 2,50,000 Panchayats, with nearly 3 million elected representatives. Of them, one-third are women. "This is the largest single representative base in the world's largest experiment in local democracy", he pointed out.

With the markets becoming more competitive, the infrastructure requirements had increased, forcing people to demand viable and speedy solutions to their day-to-day problems. The only way to meet this challenge was to engage people themselves in the development process and social audit through Gram Sabhas, Rana said.

He said the financial powers for implementing the rural development ministry schemes had already been transferred to the PRIs. The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), the flagship rural employment scheme, was being implemented through Panchayats.

Recently, the execution of the watershed development programmes had also been passed on to the PRIs.