The ‘Grama Jyothi’ programme being launched by the State government from August 17 will focus on improving the service delivery at village-level by decentralising the decision-making process – by preparing a perspective village development plan for the next four-five years and monitoring its implementation.
Explaining the purpose of the programme, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had recently stated that gram sabhas would be held with the participation of officials of all line departments and elected representatives to discuss needs of the villages. He had said guidelines for implementation of the programme would be formulated in a couple of days.
In tune with his promise, Principal Secretary of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development J. Raymond Peter issued the guidelines on Friday in which it stated that the programme was basically aimed at empowering the gram panchayats to take decisions that affect them and also plan and prioritise their needs. Such needs would be suitably tied-up with the pooled funds of various schemes.
The guidelines also envisaged that the perspective plan should focus on the provision of basic amenities such as roads, drains, sanitation, drinking water, street lights, wage employment and green cover over the four to five years. The monitoring and coordination plan would concentrate on improved service delivery in health and nutrition, education, agriculture and animal husbandry sectors. Another key component to be addressed by gram panchayats would be the issue of livelihoods, poverty and social security that afflict the poor. The gram panchayats would be required to formulate a special development plan for the welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
The State government believes that the effective delivery of all of the functions and responsibilities of gram panchayats would directly influence the quality of life of the people and would help in improving the Human Development Index (HDI). It has identified various financial resources for Gram Panchayat Development including levying, collection and spend different types of taxes and non-taxes by gram panchayats for discharging their functions.
Seven functional committees on sanitation and drinking water, health and nutrition, education, social security and poverty reduction, natural resource management, agriculture and infrastructure would coordinate and oversee the implementation of plans.
