Touch of mouse thrills Panchayat workers

INDORE DIVISION has taken a baby step towards taking computer literacy to grassroots level. Nevertheless, it?s a giant leap for the divisional headquarter that has become the first entity in the country to begin imparting computer lessons in accounts-keeping to secretaries of its village Panchayats.

INDORE DIVISION has taken a baby step towards taking computer literacy to grassroots level. Nevertheless, it’s a giant leap for the divisional headquarter that has become the first entity in the country to begin imparting computer lessons in accounts-keeping to secretaries of its village Panchayats.

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State Panchayat and Social Justice Department has launched ‘Panch Lekha Software’ under which about 1,200 secretaries of 3,368 village Panchayats in Indore division will undergo three-day training in batches of 60 before book-keeping goes online from April 1, 2006.

The three-day training of third batch of 60 Panchayat secretaries concluded at Regional Rural Development Training Institute here today and the response was overwhelming. Exuding self-confidence, the secretaries and gram sahayaks of Indore, Mhow, Sanver and Depalpur tehsils appeared jubilant after undergoing the training.

For them, the maiden maneuvering of the mouse and watching the results flash in a second on the monitor screen was bliss. “It was a wonderful experience, we touched a computer for the first time. More importantly, it expelled fear that computers are incomprehensible,” Dudhiya gram sahayak D L Salvadiya and Rampuriya village Panchayat secretary Ajay Verma remarked.

While the degree of excitement varied, they were unanimous in their view that computerising the accounts would bring in transparency and cut down corruption, as it would no longer be possible for anyone to manipulate figures. “Besides, it will help in updating records.

We’ll also get into the habit of maintaining ledger books, which was ignored till now,” Tigariya Badshah panchayat secretary Bane Singh Pandya said. During their one-day practical training, the trainees, who were mostly between 20-55 years of age, learned to feed the data in opening balance, income and expenditure columns.

Expressing the urge to learn more, they demanded more hours for operations at seven computer systems installed at the Centre. They insisted that village Sarpanchs should also receive training to make them aware of computerisation benefits.

According to Deputy Divisional Commissioner R K Khare, the present computer training was need-based and there was a plan to provide more intensive training in future. Computers are being installed at all Janpad Panchayat offices to implement Panch Lekha scheme, he said.

Credit to Commissioner
THE STATE Government has introduced Panch Lekha Software following the recommendations of 11th Finance Commission, which insisted that the money granted under various schemes for rural development should be well accounted. Subsequently, the online computerisation of village Panchayats was envisaged and National Information Centre has developed the Hindi software.

Implemented at the behest of Divisional Commissioner Ashok Das, all seven districts of Indore division have been selected for the software programme in first phase.

According to training coordinator and chartered accountant Jayant Gupta, the residential training programme has practical and theoretical part. Computer operation is the practical part of training module.

The theoretical part includes teaching new accounting system prescribed by Union Rural Development Ministry, double entry system of accounting and bank reconciliation statement, audit system and providing information under Right to Information, 12th Finance Commission, National Employment Guarantee Scheme, Rural Development Department schemes and directions issued by State Panchayat and Rural Development Department.

The Regional Rural Development Training Institute will hold six training workshops every month with a target to train 360 persons.