Acknowledging the importance of Panchayati Raj system in rural development, the Himachal Pradesh government has given added priority to strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and today the state has emerged as role model for the rest of country. The special emphasis has been laid on women empowerment and the state has already implemented 50 percent reservation for them. It is happy augury that 58 percent of elected PRI representatives in this hill state are women while others states are still striving to give a minimum of 33 percent reservation to this section.
In order to implement the Panchayati Raj System in an effective manner, the government has ensured infrastructural facilities, adequate staff and frequent training to them besides facilitating the gram panchayats with modern facilities like computers enabling them to work in an efficient manner.
The computer hardware has been issued to all Gram Panchayats of the state. The Panchayati Raj department has completed the computerization work of all PRIs, which has helped in ensuring transparency and accountability in the functioning of the department. It has also in proper maintenance of accounts and records of the PRIs. Since various kinds of services are being made available through gram panchayats to the people, the government has filled up 400 vacant posts of Panchayat Sahayaks to ensure their availability in every Gram Panchayat. The government has also decided to fill up 200 more posts of Panchayat Sahayaks. Apart from this, 33 posts of various categories of Class-III and Class-IV have been created in the PRIs.
A sum of Rs. 48.06 crore has been approved to undertake various activities under Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan. It includes Rs. 7.42 crore for renovation of 226 Panchayat Ghars, Rs.750 lakh for construction of new Panchayat Ghars. The government released Rs.1.25 crore for construction of State Panchayat Resource Center at Mashobra (Shimla), Rs.1.56 crore for construction of 13 block level resource centres and Rs.2.50 crore each for construction of District Panchayat Resource Centers at Mandi, Solan, Hamirpur, Shimla, Kangra, Kinnaur and Bilaspur. Besides, Rs. 50 lakh have been issued for development of Panchayati Raj Institution, Baijnath.
Under Mission Mode Project (e-Panchayat project) of the Government of India, seven software applications out of proposed 11 core software applications have already been rolled out in the PRIs. The training to the officials of the Panchayats/Departments on these applications has been organized in the Panchayati Raj Training Institute, Mashobra. The PRIs have started working on these software applications. In order to make the panchayats free from stray cattle, a scheme for awarding the two best panchayats in each block has been notified by making provision of Rs.7.80 crore for giving award money to the best gram panchayats.
To empower the women in the rural areas to exclusively discuss the issues relating to the women and children and issues concerning overall development of the panchayats, it has been decided to make provision in the HP Panchayati Raj Act to organize two Mahila Gram Sabhas first on 8th March and second on first Sunday of September months in every Gram Sabha.
The state Government has increased the honorarium of elected representatives of the PRIs from 1st July, 2016. The honorarium of Panchayat Sahayaks has been enhanced from Rs.5910 to Rs.7000 per month, Tailoring Teachers from Rs.2300 to Rs.2600 per month. The services of two Assistant Engineers, 172 Junior Engineers, 12 Junior Scale Stenographers, 1297 Panchayat Secretaries and 10 Junior Accountants have been regularised.
With a view to ensure attendance of officers and officials of various departments in the Gram Sabha meetings, necessary amendments have been made in HP Panchayati Raj Act, 1994. As per the amendment, the Gram Sabha meetings will be held in the month of January, April, July and October in such a manner that all panchayats are covered in a district in each of such months. To ensure that development of the panchayats is not adversely affected due to want of quorum, the quorum for general meeting of Gram Sabha has been reduced from one third to one fourth.