Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 17: Kavinder Gupta, senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister, today asserted that the BJP Government led by PM Narendra Modi is committed to strengthen grassroots level democracy by shifting the power from Centre and states to the local Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
In a statement issued to media persons, the BJP leader said that in order to further empower PRIs, the Government has now given financial powers to accord administrative approval for works up to Rs one crore to District Development Councils (DDCs) , Rs 20 lakh to Block Development Councils (BDCs) and Rs 5 lakh to the Gram Panchayats.
Terming the move as groundbreaking, the senior BJP functionary said that in the last over 70 years, the power was in hand of limited people but under BJP regime, the power has been distributed to the lowest level as more than 30,000 elected public representatives have been empowered to directly deliver services to common man thus removing the gap between centre, state and the masses.
He said that the Government led by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has strengthened the grassroots democracy in the UT and has given more powers to Panchayati Raj Institutions.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the culture of work has changed and the dynamics of development has improved.<The present Government has empowered the people in the real sense and the three tier system of PRIs has been established across Jammu and Kashmir. The PRI representatives have been empowered to such an extent that they can now take decisions independently without any interference of the Centre and State, which is proving to be a real game changer thus speeding up the development without any chance of siphoning of funds as local governance is monitored by the people at local level”, he maintained.