Chennai
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday announced setting up ‘Village Secretariats’ for effective implementation of various government schemes at grassroots level and 600 such secretariats would come up this year.
Making a statement in the state Assembly, Stalin said with an objective of ensuring good governance in local bodies, village secretariats would be established, which would coordinate and integrate several government schemes for effective implementation. In Tamil , the village secretariats are ‘Grama Seyalagangal,’ and a village secretariat is a ‘Grama Seyalagam’.
The best performing village panchayats would be conferred the ‘Uthamar Gandhi Award’, from this year and one village panchayat from every district shall get a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh each.
The Chief Minister’s statement was on fresh initiatives in respect of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, considering the National Panchayati Raj Day on April 24. The YSR Congress government in Andhra Pradesh launched the village secretariat (Grama Sachivalayam) initiative in 2019.
This year, in 600 village panchayats such village secretariats shall be built, he said. The various state-run schemes include those under the departments of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Revenue, Agriculture and Social Welfare.The village secretariats would have a chamber for the village panchayat president, a conference hall, offices for the village administrative officer, village panchayat secretary and each of them would be constructed at an estimated Rs 40 lakh each. These shall have all amenities including the internet.Though the policies are formulated at the State Secretariat here, it is the local bodies that perform the key role of taking the schemes to the people. That is why the government is giving importance to local bodies.Referring to DMK’s back-to-back victories in local civic polls, be it rural or urban, Stalin said the government would continue to perform to honour ceaselessly, the faith reposed by the people on them.Further, the CM announced an increase of five to ten times in the sitting fee of local representatives. The fee is given for participation in official meetings.For village panchayat president and village panchayat members the hike shall be five times. As regards district panchayat and panchayat union representatives, the increase would be ten times, he said.He said November 1 shall be observed as ‘Local Governance Day’, to create awareness on government schemes, ensure transparency and encourage people’s participation.Stalin said the number of meetings annually held by the Gram Sabhas would be increased to 6 from 4. Such meetings were held on Republic Day, May Day, Independence Day and on Gandhi Jayanthi. From now on, it shall also be on World Water Day (March 22) and on Local Governance Day (November 1).The chief minister also announced that new vehicles would be purchased for chairpersons of all Panchayat Union Councils for effective monitoring of state schemes at the local level.
