All Bihar gram panchayats to have their own websites now

Each website will contain demographic details, places of historical importance, important institutions as well as details of elected representatives of the area

PATNA: All gram panchayats in Bihar will soon have their own websites as part of the state government’s mission to bring in accountability and transparency in the system of rural governance. These websites will contain demographic details, places of historical importance, important institutions as well as details of elected representatives of the area.

All elected representatives of gram panchayats and other functionaries would be trained to handle the websites. (Shutterstock Image)

The state panchayati raj department has approached the Bihar state Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (Beltron) along with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and other Central government institutions to develop a comprehensive website for each of the 8,387 gram panchayats in Bihar, so that each activity, including the status of schemes, can be monitored from the state headquarters.

Panchayati raj minister Samrat Chaudhary said the project to develop websites of the gram panchayats would start once the department receives quotations from various government agencies.

“The websites shall be equipped with management information system (MIS) and Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS) so as to bring in more accountability for every pie of the fund spent on development and other activities in gram panchayats,” Chaudhary said, adding that all elected representatives of gram panchayats and other functionaries would be trained to handle the websites.

“This year, the department intends to spend a grant of ₹8,500 crore through gram panchayats on health, development and governance sectors. Of this, ₹3,900 crore has been earmarked for development and ₹1,150 crore on health sectors. The fund has been made available to Bihar under the 15th finance commission’s recommendations,” said a senior officer.

Chaudhary said the state government had also allocated ₹3,261 crore as its grant for gram panchayats. “Some financial irregularities had come up in the previous years and the department had to step in to check the same as most financial transactions were being done manually. Now, the department is insisting on a heightened system of financial monitoring for the gram panchayats’ spends,” he said.