Port Blair, Aug 28: The State Panchayat Resource Centre (SPRC), under Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA), Directorate of RD, PRIs & ULBs, Marine Hill, Port Blair conducted a virtual orientation programme on Revamped National Panchayat Awards on 27th August 2022 for the Block Development Officers (BDOs), Pradhansand Panchayat Secretaries of all the Gram Panchayats across the Islands.
Incentivizing the Panchayats in the form of awards is an integral part of creating a healthy and competitive ecosystem for the holistic implementation of developmental plans. Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has been incentivizing the best performing Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) through awards as an encouragement to enhance their performance in local self-governance. Revamped National Panchayat Awards will be a multi-level pyramid competition of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) at Block, District, State/UT and National levels under 09 themes.
The newly introduced category of awards is DeenDayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar and Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar. Both these awards will be given away to GPs, BPs and ZPs in all the 09 LSDG themes. Panchayats will be incentivized for their performance in the attainment of the SDGs under each theme. Along with this, there are 5 special categories of awards- (1) Gram Urja Swaraj Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar, (2) Carbon Neutral Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar, (3) Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar, (4) Panchayat KshamtaNirmaanSarvottamSansthanPuraskar, (5) Best Participant (State/District Panchayat)
The virtual orientation programme was inaugurated by Mr.RadheyShyam Meena, DANICS, Director (RD/Panchayat). In his inaugural address, he underlined that the Incentivization of Panchayats has been brought about to promote competitive spirit amongst the PRIs.
In order to achieve the collective goals of SDGs, Incentivization has been completely aligned with the LSDG themes. Therefore, the better performing Gram Panchayats under each of the themes can get awarded and also project their activities at the national level. He also directed the Block Development Officers (BDOs) to closely monitor the filing of nominations and also to assist the Gram Panchayats in completing the process of the award. Further, he informed that this time awards shall also be given at the Block, District and UT level as per the instructions of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Govt. of India.
Giving a detailed presentation on the revamped National Panchayat Awards Mr. Mohammed Yunus M, State Nodal Officer (Panchayat Awards) explained different categories of awards, committees at Block, District & UT levels, etc. He stated that the objectives of the awards are to nudge PRIs for systematic planning, implementation, monitoring and accountability towards achieving LSDGs at the
Panchayat level. Incentivization of Panchayats scheme, through National Panchayat Awards mainly aims to assess the performance of PRIs in the attainment of SDGs through 9 identified themes, promote competitive spirit among PRIs and catalyze the process of ‘Localization of SDGs through PRIs’ and sensitizing the PRIs about the significance of attaining LSDG by 2030. The Gram Panchayats which compete at the National level will be awarded by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India at New Delhi on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day on 24th April. In the presentation, the State Nodal Officer also informed that based on the aggregate performance of Gram Panchayats within a jurisdiction, the Block Panchayats and Zilla Parishads will also be considered for various levels of the award under the relevant categories.
Technical sessions were conducted by the Domain Experts in which they explained the questionnaires thematic wise covering all the 09 thematic areas. The session concluded with the demonstration of the online questionnaire filling procedure and discussing in detail the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the Panchayat Awards. It was also informed to the PRIs that the State Programme Management Unit (SPMU) shall be available 24×7 on call to assist the Gram Panchayats in completing the process of awards.
