| National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India Rajendranagar, Hyderabad – 500030 |
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PRESS RELEASE
Consultative Regional Workshop on Enhanced e-GramSWARAJ Application scheduled from 19th to 20th January 2023 begins at NIRDPR Hyderabad
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Hyderabad, 19th January 2023
A two day Consultative Regional Workshop on Enhanced e-GramSWARAJ Application was inaugurated today. the 19th January 2023 at NIRDPR . At the outset Dr AK Bhanja Associate Professor & Centre head CPRDPSSD, welcomed the participants and explained the objectives of this 2 day Workshop. For this workshop elected representatives and officials of Panchayati Raj department from six states viz., Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan & Telangana were invited . Dr AK Bhanja informed the participants that the focus of the workshop would be on three important issues viz., e-GramSWARAJ Portal , GramManchitra Spatial Planning Application and Local Government Directory (LGD) . He said to strengthen e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the country, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) on April 24, 2020, launched eGramSWARAJ, a user friendly web-based portal. eGramSWARAJ aims to bring in better transparency in the decentralised planning, progress reporting and work-based accounting.
Dr. G. Narendra Kumar Director General, NIRDPR , Sri . Alok Prem Nagar Joint Secretary, MoPR and Sri. Sunil Jain, Deputy Director General NIC were present in the inaugural session.
Next Sri . Alok Prem Nagar Joint Secretary, MoPR made a detailed presentation on the enhanced features of this portal ,the eGramSWARAJ 2.0. He said this portal has been developed amalgamating the functionalities of all the applications under e-panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP). e-GramSWARAJ assists in enhancing the credibility of Panchayat through inducing greater devolution of funds to PRIs. He highlighted that this application would bring better transparency through decentralized planning, progress reporting and work-based accounting. Furthermore, the application provides a platform for effective monitoring by higher authorities.
The Joint Secretary informed that in order to have scientific and orderly disposition of land resource and to foster economic development, the MoPR launched ” Gram Manchitra” a Spatial Planning Application for supporting in GPDP . It provides a unified Geo-spatial platform to better visualize the various developmental works to be taken up across the 29 sectors and provide a decision support system to Panchayats This Application is also linked with Socio –Economic Caste Census report, Mission Antyodaya reports and resource envelope of Panchayat together with spatial and non-spatial data from various ministries and departments.
With regard to LGD , the Joint Secretary said , all the States can update the directory with newly formed Panchayats /,re-organization in Panchayats/ conversion from Rural to Urban area etc and provide the same info in public domain. He informed that it is mandatory to upload of Govt. order for each modification in the directory to ascertain the users that the data published in LGD is authentic. Under SVAMITVA scheme, he said large scale mapping of rural abadi area is being done using drone technology which generates high resolution and accurate maps of the scale 1:500. The spatial data captured would provide decision support system and helps in development and execution of planning activities
Dr. G. Narendra Kumar Director General, NIRDPR delivered a special address. First he congratulated MoPR for provide an ICT platform to Panchayats through computerization of Panchayat functioning. He also complimented the Panchayats for effective use of several applications developed by MoPR to improve service delivery The Director General in his opening remarks highlighted the several challenges being faced by Panchayats in its functioning .He said Own Source Revenues ( OSR) provide long-term sustainability to public services and therefore the Gram Panchayats should fully exploit the local revenue potential .The Gram Panchayats the grass roots level administrative units are responsible to plan and implement schemes for Localization of SDGs. For this he suggested that first the Panchayats should “Brainstorm” the issues faced in the villages to find right solutions. And then prioritize the LSDG targets and indicators to formulate the GPDP. The Director General also mentioned about the Panchayat Citizens’ Charter .He said it is a practical proposition in terms of involving and motivating the elected representatives and Panchayat officials and the citizens to work out and adopt a more responsive Panchayat set up with increased transparency and efficient service delivery as per citizens’ needs. While concluding his address, he said many GPs show innovative approaches, best practices, and effective strategies in public service delivery and in reaching out to marginalized sections. Best Practices are the changed processes and approaches that produce better results and help others to learn from such experiences. He advised that there should be provision in e-GramSWARAJ to upload the best practices so as to raise the awareness among Panchayati Raj functionaries in order to replicate such best practices.
The inaugural session ended with vote of thanks presented by Dr AK Bhanja Associate Professor , CPRDPSSD-NIRDPR
About NIRDPR
The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), Hyderabad an autonomous organization under the Union Ministry of Rural Development. It is a premier national centre of excellence in rural development and Panchayati Raj. Recognized internationally as one of the UN-ESCAP Centres of Excellence,
As a “think-tank” for the Ministry of Rural Development, and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, NIRDPR act as a repository of knowledge on rural development and assist the ministries in policy formulation in rural development to usher in the changes. NIRDPR builds the capacities of rural development functionaries, elected representatives of PRIs, bankers, NGOs and other stakeholders through inter-related activities of training, research and consultancy.
The focus of the institute is on the policies and programmes that benefit the rural poor, energize the democratic decentralization processes , improve the operational efficiency of rural development personnel, promote transfer of technology and create environmental awareness. In addition to the main campus at Hyderabad, this Institute has North-Eastern Regional Centre at Guwahati, Assam to meet the NE-regional need
Contact Person;
Dr.Anjan Kumar Bhanja,
Associate Professor & Head,
CPRDP&SSD, NIRDPR
Cell : 9436045248
e-mail: anjankumarb.nird@gov.in
