Bihar’s Panchayati Raj Minister is a man in a hurry. After initiating a number of steps to streamline the functioning of the state’s 8,387 gram panchayats, Minister Samrat Choudhary now plans to bring them online to ensure intensive monitoring of their performance and ensure more effective delivery of services.

Choudhary, who was the vice president of the BJP’s Bihar unit, told Swarajya that all the gram panchayats in the state will soon have their own websites, and all these websites will be interlinked with his department’s and the state government’s portals.

“The aim is to bring about transparency and accountability in rural governance. The websites will not only have minute details--demographic, cultivable lands, irrigation, education, health and other facilities and infrastructure like roads, canals, bridges, toilets etc--in every gram panchayat area, but will also have complete details of all schemes, projects and welfare measures under implementation by the respective rural bodies,” said Choudhary.

The Minister, known for his initiatives and out-of-the-box ideas, had earlier proposed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to set up an inter-departmental coordination committee to ensure cooperation between departments for easier implementation of government schemes and projects.

The establishment of this committee on Choudhary’s initiative has resulted in faster and more transparent implementation of rural development and welfare measures in Bihar.

The Panchayati Raj department has invited proposals from the Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation (Beltron), the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and other government bodies to set up separate websites for each gram panchayat in the state.

Choudhary said that management information systems (MIS) and comprehensive financial management system (CFMS) would be incorporated in the websites to better financial management, transparency and accountability.

“This will enable the monitoring of all expenses and bring about complete transparency. It will also bring all gram panchayats under complete supervision of the department. Details of all public works and schemes undertaken by the panchayats will be uploaded on the websites for the public to keep track of. This will also make the elected representatives much more accountable to the people,” said Choudhary.

Bihar will become the first state in the country where every rural body will have its own website and all would go online. The Minister said that all elected representatives and gram panchayat employees would be trained to handle the websites and upload all information on a daily basis.

Choudhary said that with a huge flow of funds to the gram panchayats to implement development projects and schemes as well as welfare measures, it had become imperative to ensure effective monitoring of the funds spent and the status of projects.

The state’s Panchayati Raj Department is channelling more than Rs 8,500 crore this financial year alone through the gram panchayats for health, infrastructure development and other projects. “It is important to ensure that the gram panchayats execute projects speedily and honestly in a very transparent manner. It is also important that the most important stakeholders--the masses who are the beneficiaries--get to monitor the projects and schemes,” the Minister said.

Choudhary also said that the decision to bring all gram panchayats on an online platform and enable intensive monitoring of the projects and schemes they implement by the department as well as the masses was prompted by reports of financial irregularities as tardy implementation of some projects by many gram panchayats.

“We need to leverage modern tools to ensure that the benefits of all projects and schemes reach the targeted sections and also allow the people at large to closely monitor the functioning of their elected representatives,” said Choudhary.

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Gram Panchayat Website

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