The Hindu : Monitoring cells constituted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 21, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Monitoring cells constituted

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Jan. 20. The Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Annasaheb M.K. Patil, has said here that district-level cells to monitor the implementation of Central Government programmes were constituted recently in all 592 districts in the country.

The committees, called monitoring and vigilance cells, will be headed by the district MPs and Collectors will be secretaries. There will be four members from local bodies and four nominees each of the Central and State Governments on the committees. Where there are more than one MP in a district, those representing the larger rural area will be chairmen, the Minister said.

Mr. Patil, who was in the city for the 54th general council meeting of the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), told newsmen that the committees had been asked to conduct their first sitting before the end of this month. It was suggested that they meet once in three months.

The committees would look into all aspects from planning to final accounting of all Central Government programmes.

Mr. Patil said the Prime Minister would launch the `Hariyali' programme for wasteland development on January 27. The Centre had allotted Rs. 1,000 crores for the programme to be implemented by panchayats.

He had a word of praise for Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra for sending the largest number of proposals for the implementation of the Swajaladhara scheme on rural water supply. More than 30,000 proposals were received from all over the country. The Centre would contribute Rs. 1,800 crores out of Rs. 2,200 crores allotted for the scheme.

The Minister maintained that the Centre was frequently addressing the State Governments on devolution of powers to panchayat raj institutions but not a single State had implemented the 29 assignments to the bodies under the Panchayat Raj Act. The Prime Minister himself was keen on giving powers to the panchayats and prepare them in meeting their tasks. It was in this sense that the role of the NIRD, a premier rural development institute, was enhanced. The Minister called upon the NIRD to step up its training programmes, research activities, monitoring and formulation of guidelines for panchayats.

A meeting of the chairmen of Zilla Parishads at the national level in New Delhi last year had decided to empower gram panchayats in all developmental activities, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Three naxals killed in encounter

Cong. seeks probe into Velugu implementation

Now, the chimp genome project

Earth caves in, 4 buried alive

Former Minister Alwardas passes away

A be-thorough Governor

High drama as TDP MLA `secures' relative's release

Monitoring cells constituted

Minister denies change in highway alignment

Union Minister promises all help to rural tech park