Examine the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Service Delivery.

 ROLE OF THE PRIS IN SERVICE DELIVERY

i) Jal Jeevan Mission

It is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. The Mission is based on a community approach to water, and will include extensive Information, Education and Communication as a key component of the mission. It looks to create a Jan Andolan for water, thereby making it everyone’s priority.

Gram Panchayat plays a lead role in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of the water supply infrastructure in a village. The role of Gram Panchayat includes identifying needs, planning, involving the community, implementing schemes, monitoring the quality of water. For achieving all this, Gram Panchayats could form a ‘Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSC)’.This committee could help to mobilise communities, educate them and ensure they get the necessary training and technical support to achieve drinking water.

ii) Swachh Bharat Mission

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or ‘Clean India’ mission was launched by the Government of India on October 2, 2014. The Mission was implemented as a nationwide campaign, that aimed at eliminating open defecation in rural areas during the period 2014 to 2019 through mass scale behaviour change, construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets and establishing mechanisms for monitoring toilet construction and usage.

The Gram Panchayats have a pivotal role to play in the implementation of the programme. Every state at its individual level decides to channel the fund flow for activities at the GP level. All Institutions and Committees working within the GP framework have to prioritise sanitation within their programmes. A Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC) / Pani Samiti is constituted as a SubCommittee of the Gram Panchayat, for providing support in terms of motivation, mobilisation, implementation, construction of toilets, maintenance of the clean environment by way of safe disposal of waste. Thus, it is expected to work as a ‘local public utility that can manage, operate and maintain in-village water supply and sanitation services on a regular and long term basis with a focus on service delivery. The GPs are also expected to be responsible for the collection and segregation/management of solid and liquid waste and to ensure that households pay monthly user charges for water and sanitation services. The Block Panchayats are expected to provide guidance, support and monitor sanitation status in the Gram Panchayats.

iii) The Smagra Shiksh

It is an Integrated Scheme on School Education that envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to senior secondary levels. It subsumes Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). The integrated scheme assigns special importance to decentralised planning and implementation.

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has advised the Panchayati Raj Departments of all states to include the provision for the construction of toilets and drinking water supply system, filling of gaps in the provision of toilets, rehabilitation and regular repair of existing toilets and drinking water system in schools in the Gram Panchayat Development Plans to be prepared converging resources under the 14thFinance Commission grants, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Swachh Bharat Mission.

iv) National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)

The NRHM, which is a submission of the National Health Mission, aims to undertake architectural correction of the health system, to enable it to strengthen public health management and service delivery in the country. It seeks to empower panchayats to manage, control and be accountable for health services through community ownership steered through village-level health committees.

Every panchayat is expected to constitute a Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Committee, that is entrusted with the preparation of a village health plan and monitoring of the services being delivered through subcentres. The panchayats receive tied funds under the NRHM for the purpose. The Panchayat Samitis and Zilla Parishads have been entrusted with the responsibility to lead and coordinate the work of panchayats.

v) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

It is an employment guarantee scheme, that guarantees employment to poor people in rural areas. The scheme puts emphasis on the fact that it is a right of a rural Indian citizen to work for a minimum of 100 days in a year (if she is willing to work) and the job should be provided to her/him by authorities in her/his own area and also within a given time-frame (within 15 days) otherwise State Government is liable to pay Unemployment Allowance.

vi) Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana (PMGSY)

This scheme was launched by the Government of India in 2000. The aim of the scheme is to provide good all-weather road connectivity to the eligible unconnected Habitations1 . This scheme is one of the government’s strategies for poverty reduction. For effective implementation and to achieve the objectives of this scheme, proper planning is imperative, so that scheme is implemented in a systematic and cost-effective manner.

vii) Ujjwala Scheme

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households. The GP is given the responsibility to sensitize the Ujjwala beneficiaries regarding the safety and utility of LPG, women empowerment and health benefits of using clean fuels etc.

Block Panchayats help the Gram Panchayats in spreading awareness about the scheme through campaigns (using print media, mass mailing, bulk SMS etc.), and in making the scheme more citizen-centric. The District Panchayat helps the Gram Panchayat and LPG distributors in the distribution of LPG cylinders to ultimate beneficiaries (BPL families).

viii) Svamitva

The Government of India has decided to implement a scheme for surveying the land parcels in the rural inhabited area using Drone technology. The survey shall be done across the country in a phase-wise manner over the period of five years (2020 -2025). The Gram Panchayat shall update the property tax and asset register of the GP, wherever applicable.

ix) Digital India in Service Delivery

The importance of e-governance is apparent to everyone. It aims at bringing down the transaction costs in availing services. While it reduces the need for citizens to come face to face with a service provider, it has huge potential in inducing transparency in the mechanisms. Provision of the services in e-governance mode is dependent on the data generated at the GP level, where GP has a significant responsibility

Developed as part of Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES) under e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP), Service Plus Meta-Data based e-Service delivery framework is built on Low Code–No Code (LCNC) architecture for delivering electronic-services to citizens. An application that is quick to learn, and easy to use with minimal effort or very little skill set.

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