A Parliamentary committee has expressed its dismay over the lack of infrastructure, from absence of building to lack of manpower, for panchayats and said it is adversely affecting the empowerment of local bodies.
While states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Karnataka and Uttarakhand have come in for criticism for keeping large number of vacancies in their states for the key post of secretary, Gram Panchayats, the Committee has praised Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Sikkim for filling up all posts.
UP has more than 12,003 posts out of sanctioned 16,432 vacant while Maharashtra has 16,655 out of 17,326, Andhra has 10,670 out of 12,395 and Uttarakhand has 412 out of 670 posts unfilled.
Andhra, UP, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab also received flak for not constructing panchayat ghars in required numbers.
The Standing Committee headed by Sumitra Mahajan said it is necessary to convert discretionary powers of states into mandatory obligation for the devolution of powers to Panchayati Raj Institutions.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj told the Committee that it would require constitutional amendment, arguing that it would not be in the spirit of federalism underlined in the Constitution.
The Committee said states should be incentivised or the status quo might continue indefinitely.
It stressed that involvement of various ministries in the capacity building for panchayats resulted in lack of composite and cohesive planning and recommended that these ministries should instead make funds available to MoPR so that the work is done in a systematic way.
The Committee in its report on Capacity Building of PRIs also recommended that massive literacy campaign should be a part of training of elected panchayat members.
"For future, the Committee feels that there is a need to examine whether some minimum qualification could be set for holding positions in PRIs," it said.
