 "Govt to give boost to panchayat infrastructure, border areas in focus")
Seeking to address infrastructure gaps, the Panchayati Raj Ministry has approved a series of proposals for building new panchayat buildings and resource centres and upgrading existing ones across the country. These include a proposal for building around 400 Gram Panchayat buildings in border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, ministry sources said.
According to a source, a number of proposals were put forth in the meeting of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on the revamped Gram Swaraj Abhiyan earlier this month and were recently approved by the ministry.
In the CEC meeting chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Vivek Bharadwaj, issues of infrastructure and training for panchayats were in focus.
"In a bid to boost Panchayat Infrastructure in the 'Vibrant Villages' in the border areas, the construction of 400 Panchayat Bhawans-cum-Common Service Centres in Arunachal Pradesh has been approved by the Ministry," the source said.
Under the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, the Ministry has supported the construction of Panchayat Bhawans as well as the setting up of Common Service Centres, especially in border states.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the Ministry has supported the construction of 970 Gram Panchayat Bhawan and the co-location of 1,606 Common Service Centres during 2024-25, according to information provided by the Panchayati Raj Ministry.
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Similarly, panchayat infrastructure has been supported for the other states of the Northeast including Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Assam and Manipur. Overall 1,633 Gram Panchayat Bhawans and 514 CSCs have been approved for the States of North East.
The source said that the establishment of these facilities will empower local governance, enabling better access to public services and fostering community participation in decision-making processes.
The Ministry has also approved the construction of 3,301 Gram Panchayat Bhawans with Common Service Centre (CSC) co-locations and sanctioned 22,164 computers for Gram Panchayats across various States, including Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, and Telangana.
A decision has also been taken to modernise the Panchayat Resource Centres at state and district levels across the country.
Computer labs in State Panchayat Resource Centres (SPRC) in 25 States as well as in District Panchayat Resource Centres in 395 Districts will be upgraded with more computers of the latest specification.
Apart from this, the Central Empowered Committee also approved the standardisation of honorarium rates for Master Trainers, Guest Faculties, and Eminent Resource Persons across states/UTs.
The source said it will bring uniformity and quality in training delivery across the country from larger states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to smaller ones like Sikkim and Goa, and will be particularly important for states like Bihar, Gujarat, Punjab and West Bengal, which are scaling up their training initiatives.