8/14/2019 Current Affairs 4

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Current Affairs: Every Panchayat to have

a Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra

and Panchayat Ghar over the next three years :

Dr. C.P.Joshi

All the Gram Panchayats across the country will

have Panchayat Ghar and a Bharat Nirman Rajiv

Gandhi Sewa Kendra over the next three years.

This was announced by the Union Panchayati

Raj Minister Dr. C.P.Joshi at a National

Workshop on NREGA , NREGA: A step

towards Governance Reform, Transparency

and Accountability in Vigyan Bhawan here

today organized by the Union Ministry Of Rural

Development on the occasion of the birth

anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv

Gandhi .

There are 2.52 lakh Gram Panchayats

across the country. The proposed Panchayat Gharshave been envisaged as the mini secretariat as a

forum for the rural people to meet , share and

discuss their issues, to provide logistic support

and as a record keeping facility center. The Bharat

Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra shall be a

single window for providing the information on

the NREGS and shall provide feedback on the

quality of implementation of the program. The

idea is to slowly move on the wage employment

to self employment by providing skill

development facilities to the rural people and inthe process give a fillip to the rural economy. The

proposed design of the Bharat Nirman Seawa

Kendra at every Gram Panchayat was unveiled on

this occasion by Shri Rahul Gandhi , the guest of

honour of the workshop.

In his address, Dr. Joshi underlined the

need to ensure effective implementation of

the National Rural Employment Guarantee

Act and its processes. Spelling out NREGA as the

new model of E-Governance he stressed the need

to integrate technology for the benefit of the ruralpeople. He emphasized that the non negotiable

elements of the act would remain as it is . The

Minister called for timely payment of wages, to

leverage the potential benefits of NREGA and to

strengthen the role of Panchayats as the principal

authorities for planning and implementation of the

Act. He announced that a consensus has been

arrived at on the following issues by the four

working groups on decentralization , sustainable

development, role of technology and public

accountability :

Every Panchayat to have a Panchayat Ghar

and Bharat Nirman Rajeev Gandhi Sewa Kendra

over the next three years;Ensuring 100 days of

work on demand;Timely payment of

wages;Addressing the issue of uneven payments

in different states;Enforcing the accountability

more effectively;Involving Citizens in monitoring

in the monitoring of NREGs by setting up a group

of 100 eminent persons from media, law and

social activists;Creation of a National

Employment Guarantee Mission to provide

technical support to NREGs;Replication

of Andhra Pradesh Model of Social Audit on a

larger scale andImplementing and learning from

the best practice models.

The issue of how to make effective use of

Lok Sewaks to ensure transparency and

accountability would be discussed and debated

further before taking a final decision , the Minister

added. Paying glowing tributes to the former

Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi for his vision of a

decentralized governance in the panchayati raj,Dr. Joshi announced that every year the progress

of the program would be reviewed a day before

his birth anniversary every year.

The dignitary present in the workshop

were Ministers of State for Rural Development

Shri Pradip Jain Aditya, Shri Shishir Adhikari,

Ms. Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Finance

Shri Namo Narayan Meena, Minister of State for

Petroleum Shri Jitin Prasada, Chairman of the

Unique Identification Authority Of India(UIADI)

Chairman Shri Nandan Nilekani, Shri Mihir Shah,Member Planning Commission and the former

Chairman of the National Knowledge

Commission Sam Pitroda among others. Several

MPs, social activists, officials from both

the Central Governments and the States, and other

key stakeholders who actively participated in the

deliberations.

Another highlight of the function was the

announcement of a collaboration between Unique

Identification Authority Of India (UIADI) and

NREGA by Shri Nandan Nilekani , the Chairmanof the Unique Identification Authority Of India

(UIADI). While praising NREGA as a

phenomenal program, he emphasized the need to

connect the unique identification process with

every job card holder under the NREGA Scheme.

The linkages with UID is possible in job cards,

muster roll and bank accounts of NREGA

beneficiaries. The process would eliminate

duplicate job cards, ghost beneficiaries while

facilitating easy bank account opening, tracking

the mobility of NREGA workers and ensuring a

better monitoring of the system, he added.