Parliament Question: Local Self-Government

GOVERNMENTOF INDIA MINISTRYOF PANCHAYATIRAJ LOK SABHA UNSTARREDQUESTION NO– †5158 ANSWEREDON- 24.03.2026 LOCALSELF-GOVERNMENT †5158.SHRIKANWAR SINGH TANWAR: Will the Minister of PANCHAYATIRAJ be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has considered measures to strengthen the functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Amroha district, Uttar Pradesh, including capacity-building of elected representatives, decentralization of functions, financial management, transparency and citizen participation, so as to ensure effective functioning of local self- Government; (b) if so, the details of the initiatives taken by the Government in the district during the last three years with regard to training programmes, adoption of e-governance, flow of funds to Gram Panchayats, audit mechanisms and performance monitoring; and (c) if not, the reasons therefor? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF PANCHAYATI RAJ (SHRIRAJEEVRANJAN SINGH ALIAS LALAN SINGH) (a) to (c) “Panchayat”, being “Local Government”, is a State subject and part of State List of Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Panchayats are set up and operate through the respective State Panchayati Raj Acts. States have made their own Panchayati Raj Act, subject to the provisions of the Constitution. Article 243G of the Constitution empowers the Legislature of a State to make provisions, by law, for the devolution of power and responsibilities upon Panchayat at appropriate level, subject tosuch conditionsasmaybe specified, with respect tothe preparation of plans for economic development and social justice and implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule to the Constitution. The State legislatures are to consider the 29 subjects listed in the Eleventh Schedule for devolution of power and responsibilities upon Panchayats.Accordingly, all matters relating to Panchayats, including capacity-building of elected representatives, decentralization of functions, financial management, transparency and citizen participation to ensure effective functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions, adoption of e-governance, flow of funds to Gram Panchayats, 1audit mechanisms and performance monitoring, comes within jurisdiction of the State Government concerned,including the Stateof Uttar Pradesh. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj reviews performance of Panchayats, from time to time, through studies, review meetings, field visits, video conferencing, Information Technology applicationsetc. To strengthen the functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions, this Ministry has launched eGramSwaraj (https://egramswaraj.gov.in), a user friendlyweb-based portal, which aims tobring in better transparency in the decentralized planning, progress reporting, financial management, work-based accounting and details of assets created. The eGramSwaraj portal has also been integrated with Public Financial Management System for online transfer of the Central Finance Commission funds bythe States to PRIs and enabling Panchayats tomake real-time payments to vendors/service providers. Panchayats prepare and upload their Annual Panchayat Development Plans on eGramSwaraj portal. In addition, the Ministry has integrated eGramSwaraj with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM)to bring transparency toPanchayatprocurement. The Ministry has implemented Mission Mode Project on e-Panchayats (MMP- ePanchayat),a Central componentof the Rashtriya Gram SwarajAbhiyan (RGSA) scheme under which various e-governance projects are funded towards digitalization of Panchayats. Revamped Centrally Sponsored Scheme of RGSA has been implemented w.e.f. financial year 2022-23 in States/ Union Territories,including the State of Uttar Pradesh, with main objective for capacitating Panchayati Raj Institutions through imparting training to all the Elected Representatives, functionaries andotherstakeholders todeveloptheirgovernance capabilitiesfor leadership roles to enable the Panchayats to function effectively. The details of total number of participants trained under revamped RGSAduring the last three years in the trainings organized inthe Amroha district of State of Uttar Pradeshare asunder: S.No. FinancialYear Numberof participants trained 1 2022-23 1,852 2 2023-24 891 3 2024-25 713 Under this scheme, Ministry supplements the efforts of States/UTs on limited scale for creation basic infrastructure for effective functioning of Gram Panchayats such as Construction of Gram Panchayat Bhawans, Computers and Colocation of Common Service Centres (CSC) with Gram Panchayat Bhawans with focus on North East States, as proposed by States/UTs in their Annual Action Plans and later approved by Central Empowered Committee. Ministry has also been providing support to the States/UTs, under the scheme of revamped RGSAfor setting up of Project Management Units (PMUs) at States, District and Block level as approved in the Annual Action Plan for effective implementation of the scheme and setting up of institutional mechanism as State, District and Block level Panchayat Resource Centres to support Capacity Building& Training of Panchayats. 2An application of ‘AuditOnline’ has been developed for online audits of Panchayat accounts and their financial management. AuditOnline for transparent auditing of Central Finance Commission funds utilization for strengthen financial management of Panchayats launchedinApril 2020. Similarly, Panchayat NIRNAY is an online application that aims at bringing transparency and better management in conduct of Gram Sabhas by Panchayats. The Ministry has also launched SabhaSaar, an AI-enabled meeting summarisation tool, on 14th August 2025. The SabhaSaar platform enables structured capture and analysis of Gram Sabha proceedings and supports monitoring of key parameters such as frequency, type of Gram Sabha meetings and participation. *** 3