Ranchi becomes Jharkhand's first e-District

Jharkhand Electronic Services Delivery Act has enabled e-governance facilities at the panchayat bhawans of Ranchi to issue electronically signed certificates for birth, income, residential, castes, etc instantaneously.

Jharkhand took a major leap forward in utilising e-governance facilities to benefit the rural masses with the launch of electronic delivery system at Pragya Centres in Ranchi district.

The new services, facilitated through the newly enacted Jharkhand Electronic Services Delivery Act 2011, will enable the people in rural areas to have electronically signed certificates for birth, income, residential, castes, etc, get in a jiffy at common delivery centres at Panchayat bhawans, also known as Pragya Centres.

In a symbolic start, beneficiaries from Arsande village in Kanke block were issued identify cards with e- Signatures apart from online release of pension. Seven online services have been started in this block.

Infrastructure is being developed at the rest 36 panchayats of the blocks to benefit the people, who had to spend months otherwise to get these documents from the block offices and district headquarter.

The project is being implemented by the Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (JAPIT) in consultation with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has developed the software for electronic delivery services. The concept was originally mooted a few years ago by then IT Secretary RS Sharma, who is presently posted as Director General of the Unique Identification Development Authority of India, New Delhi.

IT Secretary Satyendra Singh said a nominal charge of Rs 15 would be levied for processing each application for which people do not need to fill up the forms by themselves. “A village-level entrepreneur will do it all on behalf of the applicants,” he said.

Among other major advantages of e-District services are transparency and speed. There is little scope of corruption, as the software has been specially designed to enable a superior officer to monitor status of pending applications online.

This apart, farmers can have authentic and block specific weather forecast at their respective Pragya Centres. The forecast report is prepared by Birsa Agriculture University after analysing the data received from the Indian Special Research Orgainisation (ISRO), Meteorological department and met centres set up at 60 blocks of the State.

Children's panchayat in Karnataka

The Concerned for Working Children is effectively leveraging the decentralised democratic set up of the country for children’s engagement, by creating several local children councils, known as makkala panchayats, in rural Karnataka.

In Karnatka, following the Panchayati Raj Institutions model, the Concerned for Working Children has created several local children councils, known as makkala panchayats that act as a forum of and for children. Beginning in 1995 with just five panchayats, today there are makkala panchayats across 56 gram panchayats in the state. These panchayats have representation from various interest groups, and have constituted their own guidelines for operation.

The members are responsible for identifying their own needs and assess issues in the community through applying various research tools. On the basis of the information collected, children draft five-year plans and negotiate solutions with the Gram Panchayats.

The engagement of children in governance processes through makkala panchayats has resulted in a range of positive effects on children as well as the communities. Children’s participation in the political process has created awareness among the village communities about children’s ability and their potential to act as agents of change. CWC’s efforts were taken up at the state level when the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department in Karnataka, issued an order to make it mandatory for all panchayats within the state to hold annual children’s Gram Sabhas.

MGNREGA for Naxal affected areas of Madhya Pradesh

Through an inclusive approach taken by the local government, MGNREGA in Naxal affected Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh has created wage employment and integrated the promotion of a gamut of other development interventions.

Balaghat is a Naxal affected area of Madhya Pradesh where unskilled workers are abundant. The district administration of Balaghat envisaged development in the region through implementation of MGNREGS with a participatory approach. The primary objectives of the programme were to create wage employment through successful implementation of MGNREGS and to involve the community in all levels of implementation. The programme, however, went beyond the creation of wage employment and managed to wean off the local community from the influence of Naxals.

The administration took the alternative development approach to identify the needs and desires of the people. MGNREGS brought in the desired funds for catalysing the development initiatives to foster activities promoting priority areas as identified by the local community, including agricultural irrigation, road connectivity, health, and education. 693 gram panchayats, 500 Joint Forest Management Committees, 11,515 Self Help Groups and Water User Associations were selected as implementation agencies, in addition to existing line departments, to facilitate effective implementation and transparency in consumption of funds. The administrator also integrated funds from additional central schemes such as rural road building, backward regions grant fund, MP and MLA local area development fund, state government’s watershed programme to support MGNREGS projects.

Governance Self Assessment in Gujrat

The Village Governance Fund (VGF) was introduced by Setus to transform the relationship between donors, NGOs, and communities; and to create platforms for Panchayats to sponsor and monitor the development of their villages. This un-tied fund enabled the Panchayats to undertake developmental agendas within the parameters of good governance, social justice, and equity. VGF provided an opportunity for Panchayats to hone their skills and legitimize their position as effective and responsive units of local self-governance. Taking into consideration the lengthy and in depth process of capacity building at various levels and through various modes, a tool was developed to assess the performance of Gram Panchayats in terms of governance parameters. In its pilot phase, three Gram Panchayats were subject to governance self assessment[1] with the following objectives:

a)      To institutionalize a system for Governance Self Assessment

b)      To assess improved capacity of Panchayats in ‘Governance’

c)      To assess improvement in support to marginalized communities by the Panchayats

d)     To assess the direction of Setus for future intervention with Panchayats

e)      To assess improvement in taxation by Panchayats

f)       To assess change in record keeping practices of Panchayats

This tool for Governance Self Assessment was developed by Setu team with support from external resource persons, in consultation with individuals from the community and Panchayat Association. The Parameters taken into consideration for developing the framework included:

·         Expectations of good governance from local communities

·         Constitutional mandates, taking references from Fundamental rights, Directive principles and Fundamental duties of local governments.

·         The Gujarat Panchayati Raj Act, provisions within, ‘subjects’ devolved to the Gram Panchayats by the State,

·         Role of GPs in implementing various Centrally and State sponsored Schemes.

·         he Parameters were then categorized in 16 subjects and each subject was probed with advanced questions to make an assessment on Panchayat’s governance role.

These 16 subjects included:

1.       Local Governance administration

2.       GP finances

3.       GP body functioning

4.       GS functioning

5.       Transparency and accountability

6.       Provisioning of basic infrastructure and services

7.       Rule and norm making

8.       Planning

9.       Environmental Management and NRM

10.   Pro – Active Governance

11.   Traditional Governance expectations

12.   Equity and Justice

13.   Implementation effectiveness – NREGA

14.   Eco – development

15.   Land – Pasture, wasteland, encroachment, etc

16.   Level of Awareness

The Assessment output was converted into scores for each of the key parameters (sixteen), as well as an overall local governance index, thus allowing for comparisons across Panchayats. It also allows for easy trend analysis over time, point at the more intractable gaps etc.

The governance deficit pointed out by the assessment defined the areas for improvement for each local government which will influence the process of Local planning, making it much more robust and objective and bring much needed attention to critical governance issues, instead of only focusing on scheme’s and infrastructure development.

While piloting and strengthening the Governance Self Assessment (GA) as a tool to augment GPs’ performance on governance parameters, it was strongly felt that more number of Panchayats need to be covered under GA in order to establish the concept and institutionalize it with Panchayat Association. Panchayat Association, though were involved with assessing the pilot Panchayats, still need to enhance their skills as auditors, share the concept and piloting experiences to larger group of Panchayats of the region, organize sharing workshops among the Talukas. Moreover, most of the Gram Panchayats have newly elected members after the Gram Panchayat elections in the month of December 2011 and April 2012 in Gujarat and thus the Panchayat Association members would also change accordingly and the association would soon have new members in their Board. The ex members of Panchayat Association would continue their membership with the Association as co-opt members and as advisors. It is essential at this phase that the former and new members of Panchayat Association arrive at a common platform, share the experience and importance of Governance Self Assessment and take the process ahead together.

In the proposed period December 2012 to March 2013, Setus would facilitate the Panchayat Association to conduct Governance Self Assessment in 10 Panchayats spread across three Blocks of the District – Bhuj, Anjar and Rapar.

Van panchayats script a success story

by Jotirmay Thapliyal

Van panchayats in India’s hilly state of Uttarakhand present a perfect example of government and citizens coming together for the management of natural resources. These autonomous local institutions have helped in preventing forest fires, illegal felling of trees and poaching, without compromising on the community's needs for timber and fodder.

Dehradun, Uttarakhand: Van panchayats have maintained and guarded Uttarakhand’s forests efficiently and continue to play a crucial role in protecting the state’s natural resources.

There are total of 113,049 Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs), including the van panchayats of Uttarakhand, in the country. The state has 12,089 van panchayats and 1,434 JFMCs and stands second to Madhya Pradesh, which has a total of 14,428 such committees.

Maharashtra has 12,473 JFMCs, Jharkhand 10,903, Orissa 10,647, Andhra Pradesh 8,498, Chhattisgarh 7,887, West Bengal 4,192 and Rajasthan 4,882.

Constituted with an aim to involve local villagers for protection and management of forests, the JFMCs have an important role in enriching the forests by preventing encroachment, forest fires, illicit cutting, smuggling of forest produce, poaching of wild animals and regulating grazing.

Accordingly, village micro-plans are prepared and JFMCs are entrusted the work of protection, management and development of jointly managed forests.

A resounding success

The importance of JFMC programme can be gauged from the fact that these committees have raised plantations in about 1.58 million hectares in the country. Committee members have been able to meet their requirements for fodder, fuel-wood, small timber and minor forest products.

In forest-predominant Uttarakhand, van panchyats outnumber JFMC due to state’s hilly topography. They owe their inception to forest protection efforts and the locals’ rights over forests. These were created out of civil (protected) forests under the jurisdiction of the Revenue Department.

The state has over 6,000 van panchayats managing 405,426 hectares of forests covering approximately 13.63% of forest area in the state.

Describing these efforts as a resounding success, Prof NP Todaria, head of the Forestry Department at HNB Garhwal University, said that van panchayats’ role in protecting and enriching Uttarakhand forests certainly stands unparalleled.

He, however, admitted that they do face challenges because of dependence on the state forest department for carrying out most of their works.

“The forest department still holds supremacy over these local bodies and the participation of villagers certainly has its limitations,” argues Todaria, who has been closely associated with Makkumath Van Panchayat in the Chamoli region of Garhwal that comprises one of the biggest van panchayats of the state.

State forest authorities too keep high hopes from the panchyats have been critical in countering forest fires, an ever-growing problem in Uttarakhand forests.

“The van panchayats’ contribution in protecting community forests in the state has been immense and the department is firm on providing adequate support to them,” said Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dr RBS Rawat.

Low women participation

But most of these panchayats have failed to ensure enthusiastic participation of women in their committees.

Authors Neelam Pant and Nidhi Pandey in “Introducing JFM to rural women of Kumaon hills: A case study” published in Indian Forester (2007) describe the participation of women in JFM committees as grossly inadequate.

The study was conducted in Suryagaon, Salri, Soangaon, Pandeygaon and Alchauna villages of Nainital District. The villages were surveyed for basic information and socioeconomic aspects.

The study argued that while women were regular visitors to forests they had little say in village committees. It also found that women are closely associated with the proper growing of multipurpose trees in their homestead which are likely to be more beneficial in meeting immediate family needs, whereas men emphasise cash-oriented trees.

Participatory development process may take a more positive role if heartfelt participation of women is enforced. As per central guidelines, at least 50% members of the JFM body should be women and their presence to an extent of at least 50% is a pre-requisite for holding the general body meeting of the JFM. The study calls for ensuring better representation to women in JFMC.

Source : The Tribune

Punsari Gram Panchayat Success Story

Written By Sambasivarao on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 |

Sometimes just a vision for change can create an ocean of a difference. When Himanshu Patel was elected Sarpanch of Punsari, a quaint little village in Sabarkanth district Gujarat,  in 2006 there was no sewerage connection, no street lights, no pucca roads and, of course, no source of income for the gram panchayat except the grants and funding from various state and Union government schemes.

Six years later, the urban village flaunts a wi-fi and optical fiber broadband network,classrooms with CCTV cameras, its own mini-bus transport system and 25-odd CCTVs located on important junctions to spot litterbugs. There is an RO water treatment plantthat supplies 20-litre cans to houses for a token cost of Rs 4. You also have a school bus to ferry your wards, and that too on clean RCC roads.

The gram panchayat also provides facilities of loud speaker covering entire village, gutter project, clean primary health care center, 8 kinder garden schools, banking facility, toll free complain receiving phone service, among others.

Villagers can buy ticket of Re 1 to use the mini bus service. For female students, bus service is completely free. Women come to deposit milk to milk bank couple of times during a day through this bus.  Cost of running the service is managed through ticket sales.

Punsri has 120 loud-speakers covering each corner of the village. Villagers listen to prabhatiya in the morning and bhajan and bhakti songs in the evening. Also important announcements like telephone bill, power bill, results of 10th and 12th are made through these speakers. Unique feature is that the village sarpanch can pass on any announcement from his mobile phone. To set up this system Rs 4 lakh were spent from corpus.

“The turn-around happened when we sold part of our grazing land as plotted schemes to various communities. The money is deposited in government coffers,” says the 28 year old  Sarpanch. Some funds were also received through various government schemes.The village received rewards from the central government and the state governments recently.

Sources : Times of India