Parliament Question: Digitalization of Gram Panchayats

GOVERNMENTOF INDIA MINISTRYOF PANCHAYATI RAJ LOK SABHA UNSTARREDQUESTION NO. †3789 ANSWEREDON 12/08/2025 DIGITALIZATIONOFGRAM PANCHAYATS †3789.SHRIDEVESHSHAKYA:

Will the Minister of PANCHAYATIRAJ be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is aware that the Gram Panchayats of various States are still not equipped with facilities like computers and active internet connection, State-wise particularly in Uttar Pradesh and in Lok Sabha Constituencies Etah, Kasganj, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Auraiya, EtawahinUttar Pradesh';

(b) if so, the detailsthereofandthe reasons therefor;

(c) whether the Government has set any time-frame for digitisation of Gram Panchayats and implementationof Digital India programme andif so, the detailsthereof;

(d) the steps taken by the Government so far to provide computers and active internet connection to the Gram Panchayats, State-wise in Uttar Pradesh and in LokSabha constituencyAonla inUttar Pradesh;and

(e) the time by which the above facilities are likely to be made available in all the Gram Panchayats,State-wise includingUttar Pradesh? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FORPANCHAYATIRAJ (PROF.S.P.SINGH BAGHEL)

(a) to (e) Panchayat, being “Local Government”, is a State subject and part of the State list of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Thus the primary responsibility of providing computers and internet connectivity in Panchayats lies with States/UTs. However, under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram SwarajAbhiyan (RGSA), the Ministry supplements the efforts of States/UTs including Uttar Pradesh by providing Computers and peripherals, at a limited scale, with particular focus on the North Eastern States. The state-wise status of computersinGram Panchayat Bhawan isattachedat Annexure -I.

The Ministry, with its limited resources under RGSA, attempted saturation approach for supporting computerization Gram Panchayat. Accordingly, during 2024–25 special efforts were taken for the Gram panchayats having their own building and approved 22,164 computers to different States/UTs, apart from 30,398 computers already approved under the scheme to States/UTs, including Uttar Pradesh.Details of computers approved under the scheme, State/UT- wise including Uttar Pradesh is attached at Annexure-II. District-wise information is not maintainedcentrally.

Further, BharatNet project being funded by Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats

(GPs). This infrastructure is leased to TSPs/ISPs for provision of internet connectivity inGPs/rural areas including post offices/other Government institutions/ villages, schools, and private areas.

As of August 2025,out of 2,69,239GPs/equivalents, 2,18,347GPs/equivalentshave been made Service Ready (Points) for providing high speed internet services under the BharatNet project. The State-wise details of GPs made Service Ready for providing Broadband services is given in Annexure-III. Further, out of 2225 Gram Panchayats in AonlaLokSabha constituency 1280 Gram Panchayats are Service Ready as per the BharatNet UNMS Dashboard. Further, the

status of service readyGram Panchayats inspecific districts isasfollows:

District Panchayat Total Number of Service Ready Gram GramPanchayat Panchayats Etah 569 405 Kasganj 423 232 Kannauj 499 80 Mainpuri 549 346 Auraiya 477 196 Etawah 469 389 Furthermore, Amended BharatNetProgramme has been approved by Cabinet on

04.08.2023,whereinup-gradationofexistingnetworkofBharatNetPhase-IandPhase-IIandwork of creation of network in remaining GPs is proposed. BSNL has been nominated as the Project Management Agency. Also, Ministry has facilitated an interface on the eGramSwaraj portal to enable service-readyGram Panchayatstoeasily applyfor Fibre-to-Home(FTTH) connections.

Under Digital India Programme, the Ministry is implementing e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP), in all the States/ Union Territories (UTs) of the country including Uttar Pradesh.The aimistorevamp the functioningof Panchayatsandtomake them more transparent, accountable, and effective. Ministry has launched eGramSwaraj, an accounting application to simplify Panchayat work like planning, accounting, and budgeting. Ministry has also integrated eGramSwaraj with Public Financial Management System(PFMS) for Gram Panchayats (GPs) to make real-time payments to vendors/service providers. As on Date, 2,46,863 Gram Panchayat DevelopmentPlans(GPDPs)for 2025-26 have beenpreparedandavailableine-GramSwaraj.

All States are making efforts to implement e-Panchayat MMP, based on their available resources. However, due to differentials in the level of preparedness of Panchayats across the country, Statesare at different stages of implementingthese applications.

*****Annexure-I Annexreferto inreplyto Part(a) to (e)of the Lok SabhaUnstarredQuestion No. 3789to be answeredon12/08/2025 Status of ComputersinGramPanchayatBhawan Sl. Name of the States/UTs Total GPswith GPs No GPs Computers without Computers 1 Andhra Pradesh 13371 9991 3380 2 Arunachal Pradesh 2108 1372 736 3 Assam 2192 1324 868 4 Bihar 8053 2000 6053 5 Chhattisgarh 11693 6309 5384 6 Goa 191 191 0 7 Gujarat 14648 14181 467 8 Haryana 6227 631 5596 9 HimachalPradesh 3615 3615 0 10 Jammu andKashmir 4291 4291 0 11 Jharkhand 4345 2248 2097 12 Karnataka 5948 5948 0 13 Kerala 941 941 0 14 Madhya Pradesh 23011 22565 446 15 Maharashtra 27943 27943 0 16 Manipur 161 161 0 17 Meghalaya 6431 4754 1677 18 Mizoram 834 305 529 19 Nagaland 1315 724 591 20 Odisha 6794 5576 1218 21 Punjab 13236 300 12936 22 Rajasthan 11193 11193 0 23 Sikkim 199 149 50 24 Tamil Nadu 12525 10941 1584 25 Telangana 12848 5045 7803 26 Tripura 606 588 18 27 Uttar Pradesh 57691 57691 0 28 Uttarakhand 7817 2863 4954 29 West Bengal 3339 3339 0 UnionTerritories 30 Andaman& Nicobar 70 70 0 31 Dadra And Nagar Haveli andDaman And Diu 42 42 0 32 Lakshadweep 10 10 0 33 Ladakh 193 193 0 34 Puducherry 108 108 0 Total 263989 207602 56387Annexure-II Annexreferto inreplyto Part(a) to (e)of the Lok SabhaUnstarredQuestion No. 3789to be answeredon12/08/2025 Statusof State/UT-wise ComputersApproved UnderRevampedRGSA Numberof Computers Sl.No State/UTs Approved 1 Andhra Pradesh 1922 2 Arunachal Pradesh 1936 3 Assam 2055 4 Bihar 4267 5 Chhattisgarh 6496 6 Goa 0 7 Gujarat 43 8 Haryana 1363 9 HimachalPradesh 334 10 Jammu andKashmir 1318 11 Jharkhand 2306 12 Karnataka 0 13 Kerala 200 14 Madhya Pradesh 289 15 Maharashtra 1625 16 Manipur 141 17 Meghalaya 1677 18 Mizoram 591 19 Nagaland 739 20 Odisha 350 21 Punjab 8334 22 Rajasthan 1554 23 Sikkim 235 24 Tamil Nadu 1594 25 Telangana 3452 26 Tripura 493 27 Uttar Pradesh 3145 28 Uttarakhand 4260 29 West Bengal 1712 30 Andaman& Nicobar 0 31 The Dadra And Nagar Haveli AndDaman And Diu 4 32 Lakshadweep 0 33 Ladakh 127 34 Puducherry 0 Total 52562Annexure-III Annexreferto inreplyto Part(a) to (e)of the Lok SabhaUnstarredQuestion No. 3789to be answeredon12/08/2025 Statewise detailsservice ready pointsforproviding Broadband connections.

S.No. States/UTs Total no.of GPs No. of Service Ready Points* 1 AndamanAndNicobarIslands 70 81 2 AndhraPradesh 13327 12972 3 ArunachalPradesh 2108 1145 4 Assam 2665 1634 5 Bihar 8054 8860 6 Chhattisgarh 11623 9759 7 Goa 191 0 8 Gujarat 14674 14563 9 Haryana 6225 6204 10 HimachalPradesh 3615 416 11 JammuAndKashmir 4291 1115 12 Jharkhand 4345 4649 13 Karnataka 5948 6251 14 Kerala 941 1130 15 Ladakh 193 193 16 Lakshadweep 10 9 17 MadhyaPradesh 23011 18106 18 Maharashtra 27952 24778 19 Manipur 3812 1485 20 Meghalaya 6838 697 21 Mizoram 843 539 22 Nagaland 1315 236 23 Odisha 6794 7099 24 Puducherry 108 101 25 Punjab 13236 12807 26 Rajasthan 11193 8997 27 Sikkim 199 54 28 TamilNadu 12525 10298 29 Telangana 12860 10926 TheDadraAndNagarHaveli 42 41 30 AndDamanAndDiu 31 Tripura 1194 772 32 UttarPradesh 57691 47451 33 Uttarakhand 7788 2021 34 WestBengal 3339 2958 Total 269020 218347 * The data is sourced from the BharatNet UNMS Dashboard, and some Gram Panchayats may have more thanone service-ready points.