Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 13: Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Ali Mohammad Sagar today said that consensus was yet to be arrived on holding of the Block Development Council (BDC) elections in the State.
Replying to the discussion on demand of grants for the departments under his charge in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Sagar said that the State Government was fully geared up to conduct the elections of Block Development Council as per Section 27, 28 and 29 of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 and notification regarding the schedule for elections was also issued. However, due to the demand of reservations in BDC raised by certain quarters in the State the elections could not be conducted.
“The Government is again intending to hold the BDC elections as soon as a consensus in this regard is reached”, the Minister said, adding “our Panchayats being small, much of the empowerment of Panchayati Raj system can be ensured at the block level. J&K has a separate Panchayati Raj Act, which is a comprehensive document comprising of most of the relevant features pertaining to Panchayati Raj Institutions. However, incorporating some provisions of the 73rd Amendment of Constitution of India in J&K Act is under the consideration of the Government”.
Stating that several measures have been taken to empower the Panchayats, the Minister said, “the Government is aware that by simply devolving funds, functionaries and functions of 14 key departments to the Pancayats will not be the end of the story. The elected representatives of Panchayats are new to the concept of local self governance and there is an acute need of capacity building of the elected representatives”.
“In this regard training programmes and exposure visits were organized. Moreover, the State Government decided to conduct the training within the State by organizing 845 training camps at the block levels where a group of 40 elected representatives will be trained in each camp at a cost of Rs 47,000”, Mr Sagar said, adding “250 camps have already been held and by the middle of April the foundation course training for the elected representatives will be concluded”.
About the infrastructure for the Panchayats, the Minister said that funds for 1000 Panchayats have been released to the Directors for transferring the same to the Panchayats for construction of Panchayat Ghars. “The State has received an amount of Rs 108.20 crore in two installments as General Basic Grant. Under 13th Finance Commission, the State has decided to construct Panchayat Ghars and repair the existing ones, to bring the Panchayats on the platform of e-Panchayats and to build capacities of the existing training institutes”, he added.
The Minister informed the House that 1788 Panchayat Ghars will be constructed by providing funds at the rate of Rs 10 lakh per Panchayat and the balance grant will be provided under MGNREGA, BRGF and RGSY. He further said Panchayat Adalats have been notified by the concerned designated authority and IMPA has been asked to prepare a training module for their capacity building so that various disputes at village level can be settled within the community.
About the rural development, Mr Sagar said, “as hundreds of crores of rupees are being spent in this sector under various programmes, it is natural that in the implementation of these schemes there could be certain lacunae and complaints of either lack of performance or misappropriation”, adding “action has been initiated against officers/officials found deviating from their duties and 52 gazetted and 51 non-gazetted officers have been charge-sheeted. Moreover, a grievance redressal cell has been established to get the requisite feedback from different quarters about the implementation of various schemes and also complaints if any”.
In order to have very strong mechanism, the Government has decided to appoint Ombudsman in each district under MGNREGA and the process of appointment will be completed within one month. Moreover, the Department has constituted Directorate of Social Audit under MGNREGA and for this purpose posts of District Coordinators, Block Coordinators and State Director have been created and will be in place very soon.
Referring to the flagship programme of MGNREGA, the Minister said that the scope of activities of the schemes has been widened by convergence of the same with other departments and also by including sanitation and livelihood activities. He said State Employment Guarantee Fund has been created under the scheme and the wage rate has been enhanced to Rs 145 per day from April 2013. Similarly, under supporting staff 823 technical assistants, 1509 GRS and 249 operators have been engaged besides other engagements are in pipeline.
Under IAY, the assistance is being enhanced from Rs 48,500 to Rs 75,000 from next financial year.
Earlier, while participating in the discussion on the grants, NPP MLA Harshdev Singh complained of irrational expenditure under MGNREGA scheme and stressed the need to appoint Ombudsman. He also demanded immediate setting up of Election Commission and Finance Commission, honorarium to the Chairman of Panchayati Adalats on the pattern of Panchs and Sarpanchs and parity in the term of MLAs and Panchs and Sarpanchs.
Congress MLA and former Minister Mohd Sharief Niaz raised the issue of ‘commission’ being taken by the officers of the Rural Development Department and said that even the Constituency Development Fund of the legislators has not been spared by such corrupt elements. “The Minister should look into the issue seriously and ensure transparency in the department”, he stressed.
He also demanded PSOs to the Sarpanchs and Panchs and honorarium to the Chairman of the Panchayati Adalats.
BJP MLA Jugal Kishore also raised the corruption issue and said, “there is a dire need to set up monitoring wing in the department and tightening noose around corrupt officers”. He demanded regularization of daily wagers of the department, streamlining of procedure to issue job cards under MGNREGA and issuance of fresh BPL list.
Hakim Mohammad Yasin demanded expeditious investigation into Rs 1.5 crore job card scam in Khag area on the ground that no significant progress has been made on the grave issue till date.
Dr Mustafa Kamal, Durga Dass, Bimla Luthra, Ch. Sukhnandan Kumar, Aijaz Ahmed Jan, Bharat Bushan, T. Namgyal, Engineer Rashid, G M Saroori, Javed Ahmed Dar, Ashwani Sharma, Haji Mohammad Ashraf, Ashok Kumar and Balwant Singh Mankotia also participated in the discussion.
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