Panchayati Raj for governance at doorsteps: Sagar

JAMMU: Minister for Rural Development, Law, Justice, Parliamentary Affairs and Panchayati Raj, Mr. Ali Mohammad Sagar has said that holding of Panchayati elections has ensured that the people living in rural and far-flung areas get governance at their doorsteps besides ensuring proper implementation of welfare programmes.
The Minister was addressing a mammoth gathering of panches and sarpanches of district Udhampur and Reasi during at an introductory meeting. The Minister of State for Rural Development Mr. Aijaz Ahmad Khan, District Development Commissioner, Udhampur, Mr. Baseer Ahmad Khan and District Development Commissioner, Reasi, Mr. Pandurang Pole, Director Rural Development, Jammu, Mr. Shafiq Raina and senior officers were present.
Terming the empowerment of the panchayats as a landmark decision, the Minister said that the government has ensured that the representatives of these grass root level institutions are fully empowered. He said powers of 14 vital departments have been extended to the Panchayat representatives so that they can effectively discharge their duties and act as link between the people and the administration.
“You should work for the proper upliftment of your respective areas without giving preferential treatment to any and also ensure that the funds earmarked for different schemes are judiciously used. Orders have already been passed to the concerned that the panches and sarpanches should be effectively involved in the implementation and identification of works under various flagship schemes like MGNREGA, IAY, TSC, NRLM and you have to ensure that the benefit percolate to the needy”, he added.
Mr. Sagar said that the government has already released the funds for construction of panchayat Ghars across the state which would be constructed in consultation with panches and sarpanches of that particular halqa.
Referring to the devolution of powers to the panches and sarpanches, the Minister said that the government has ensured that local self governance is put in place. He further said that by doing so it has given a befitting reply to certain disgruntled parties and vested interests, who had been spreading a vicious propaganda against the government.
The Minister said that the panchayat would also help to check menace of corruption effectively as the people at grass root level would involve themselves in the identification of schemes and utilization of funds besides providing a requisite feedback to the government about the same.
The Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr. Aijaz Ahmad Khan, while speaking on the occasion, appealed the panches and sarpanches to work with responsibility to change the socio-economic profile of the people living in rural and far-flung areas. He said that the panchayat should work in coordination with different departments in an effective manner and closely superwise the implementation of various welfare schemes.