Govt misses target to set up 63 IT-enabled village secretariats

Of the identified clusters, where village secretariats were supposed to be established before March 31, 2019, only 57 have IT-enabled facilities so far.

The district administration has failed to set up IT-enabled gram sachivalayas (village secretariats) in some of the 63 clusters identified in the district for the project. Of the identified clusters, where village secretariats were supposed to be established before March 31, 2019, only 57 have IT-enabled facilities so far. “The construction work is underway in the remaining clusters,” said Narendra Sarwan, district development and panchayat officer.

The district administration has failed to set up IT-enabled gram sachivalayas (village secretariats) in some of the 63 clusters identified in the district for the project. (Pardeep Pandit/HT Photo (Representative image))

In 203 panchayats of the district, 63 clusters were initially identified. A cluster comprises an area with a population of 6,000 people. “The state government’s plan was to initiate village secretariat in each of the gram panchayats,” said Sarwan. It was, however, in 2015-16, that the panchayat department planned to establish a village secretariat for every gram panchayat.

Under the Centrally sponsored scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA), the Haryana development and panchayats department initiated the concept of gram sachivalayas to provide city-like IT facilities in rural areas.

At the village secretariat, a common service centre (CSC) is set up where an operator, trained in e-panchayat functioning performs all the IT-enabled tasks. Currently, only 38 CSC operators are functioning in 57 village secretariats. They get a monthly payment of ₹6,000 from the panchayat department.

The operators aid in streamlining the daily functioning by working on the e-panchayat portal. Each year, a village development plan is prepared which is approved by the members of the panchayat.

“For 2019-20, 203 panchayats in the district have prepared their financial plan, which has already been uploaded on the planningonline.gov.in portal,” informed Sarwan. Likewise, the update of ongoing development, the money spend on implementing the scheme is also fed in the portal. “The idea is to bring transparency and proper functioning of the panchayat,” said Sarwan.

Under the Digital India Programme, the ministry of panchayati raj had recommended the formation of e-panchayats as part of the Mission Mode Project (MMP) with the purpose of digitalising the functioning of bodies under such as the panchayat samiti and the gram panchayat.

The e-panchayat operates on 11 software, which help in submitting the yearly plan and its approval to maintaining Local Government Directory (LGD) at the village, block and panchayat levels. It also helps in social auditing, meeting management and details of training. Further, geotagging of the ongoing development work and providing citizen with services, such as issuing of identity cards and licences, are also carried out.