Gram Panchayats

Centre to get 1,500 handheld X-ray machines for TB elimination programme

Currently, around 500 such portable X-ray devices are deployed at screening centers across the country and over 46,000 Gram Panchayats in the country have been declared TB-free

Polling underway in 3,894 Gujarat gram panchayats under new OBC quota

As many as 3,894 gram panchayats went to polls in Gujarat on Sunday in the first such exercise after the state government announced 27 per cent reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the local bodies elections in 2023. The State Election Commission (SEC) said 81 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to elect 3,656 sarpanchs and 16,224 panchayat members. People queued up in large numbers in rural Gujarat to cast their votes using ballot papers across 10,479 polling stations. Polling has been largely peaceful, with a few incidents of violence, and people turned up to vote despite the rains in parts of the state. In a village in Banaskantha district, a 95-year-old woman arrived to exercise her franchise with her grandson amid heavy rains. Police personnel assisted the elderly and differently-abled voters. Kheda MLA Arjunsinh Chauhan and former Tharad MLA Gujlabsinh Rajput were among the early voters. "Panchayat is an important pillar of democracy, so th

Assam records 70.19% turnout in phase one of panchayat elections 2025

The second phase of the polls will be held on May 7 in the remaining 13 districts, and the counting of votes will take place on May 11

Grassroots governance: Development requires strong panchayats at the core

Panchayats are the closest tier of governance to the people. Unlike top-down models, a panchayat-led approach allows for contextual strategies that take into account multiple local factors

Panchayati Raj has played key role in empowering women: President Murmu

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday said the Panchayati Raj Institutions, which provide a platform for governance and community development at the grassroots level, have played an important role in the empowerment of women. Addressing an event here, the president advised the women representatives to discharge their responsibilities fearlessly as elected representatives in the panchayats. She said that as a panchayat representative, they have the right to resolve mutual disputes among the villagers. "They should use this right appropriately and try to resolve disputes among the villagers at the panchayat level itself. This will not only save people's resources and time but will also increase mutual harmony," Murmu was quoted as having said in a statement issued by her office. She was addressing a group of Scheduled Tribe women representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions, who had called on her at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre here. The group is in Delhi under the ...

Finance ministry directs major PSBs to fast-track re-KYC verification

Out of 53.9 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana accounts, 11.2 crore are inoperative and 10.5 crore accounts are pending for re-KYC

Govt to give boost to panchayat infrastructure, border areas in focus

Seeking to address infrastructure gaps, the Panchayati Raj Ministry has approved a series of proposals for building new panchayat buildings and resource centres and upgrading existing ones across the country. These include a proposal for building around 400 Gram Panchayat buildings in border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, ministry sources said. According to a source, a number of proposals were put forth in the meeting of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) on the revamped Gram Swaraj Abhiyan earlier this month and were recently approved by the ministry. In the CEC meeting chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Vivek Bharadwaj, issues of infrastructure and training for panchayats were in focus. "In a bid to boost Panchayat Infrastructure in the 'Vibrant Villages' in the border areas, the construction of 400 Panchayat Bhawans-cum-Common Service Centres in Arunachal Pradesh has been approved by the Ministry," the source said. Under the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan

Polling for gram panchayats underway in Punjab amid tight security

Polling for gram panchayats in Punjab was underway amid tight security arrangements on Tuesday, officials said here. They said voting for the posts of 'sarpanch' and 'panch' through ballot boxes began at 8 am and would continue till 4 pm. After the polling, the votes will be counted at the polling stations, the officials said. There are 19,110 polling booths, 1,187 of them marked as hyper-sensitive, for the election. There are 13,225 gram panchayats in the state. According to an official, 9,398 gram panchayats will elect 'sarpanch'. The officials said 3,798 candidates for the post of 'Sarpanch' have already been elected unopposed. Elderly people, women and youth were seen standing in queues outside many polling booths in the morning. The elections are being held without symbols of political parties as a consequence of the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed last month by the Vidhan Sabha. There are a total of 1.33 crore registered voters for this election. The

Removal of women elected representative should not be treated lightly: SC

Removal of an elected public representative should not be treated lightly, especially when it concerns women belonging to rural areas, the Supreme Court has said as it set aside an order for removal of a woman sarpanch in a Maharashtra village. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan termed the matter as a classic case where the residents of the village could not reconcile with the fact that a woman was elected to the office of the sarpanch. The top court observed that it was a case where villagers were unable to come to terms with the reality that a female sarpanch would make decisions on their behalf and that they would have to abide by her directions. "This scenario gets further exacerbated when we as a country are attempting to realise the progressive goal of gender parity and women empowerment across all spheres, including public offices and most importantly adequate women representative in elected bodies, such instances at the grass-root level cast a heavy shadow on an

Viksit Bharat 2047 goal tough without rural India's development: CAG

Without the development of hinterland, India cannot become Viksit Bharat or a developed nation by 2047, Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Girish Chandra Murmu said on Tuesday. Noting that decentralisation of power has not taken to the extent it should have happened, he said, gram sabha or rural bodies are yet to get its due importance in the federal structure. "Without the development of grassroots level at the local level, we cannot achieve Viksit Bharat. More than 50 per cent people live in rural area, and until their governance, their development, their administration, their resources are not augmented, we will not be able to reach (Viksit Bharat goal). As our prime minister says that if everyone take one step, we will have 1.4 billion steps... that is why Jan Bhagidari is important," he said. There are about 2,60,000 panchayats and 7,000 urban local bodies in the country. He empahsied the need for strengthening of local bodies so that efficiency of government schem

Are BJP, Congress serious about the fiscal autonomy of gram panchayats?

Transferring items from Concurrent list to State list is not enough to give more powers to the latter

National Panchayati Raj Day 2024: History, importance, Wishes, Quotes

Mahatma Gandhi was a strong supporter of the Panchayati system because he believed that residents should be able to choose for themselves the best path for village development

Govt will continue to strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted people on the Panchayati Raj Day, asserting that his government will continue to work to strengthen local body institutions. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj observes April 24 as National Panchayati Raj Day, marking the enactment of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992, which came into force on this day in 1993 and paved the way for empowering of local bodies. Modi said on X, "On Panchayati Raj Day, greetings to all those working at grassroots to transform rural India and ensure a better quality of life for the people. Our Government will continue to work to strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions and give wings to people's dreams.

Local taxes, fees contribute 1.1% to Panchayats' total revenue: RBI report

States like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Telangana reported higher non-tax revenue than others, according to the RBI report on the Finances of Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Govt signs MoU with IIM-A for training Panchayati Raj representatives

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj on Monday signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, for training elected representatives and functionaries of the Panchayati Raj institutions, the ministry said in a statement. Ministry of Panchayati Raj Secretary Vivek Bharadwaj also inaugurated the first-of-its-kind Leadership and Management Development Programme of the ministry titled 'Leadership in Panchayats for Strategic Rural Transformation (LEAPSTART)' at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad today. During the inaugural session, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Joint Secretary Vikas Anand and IIM-Ahmedabad Director Professor Bharat Bhasker to operationalise Leadership and Management Development Programme. The ministry said that exchange of MoU marked the formal initiation of the "transformative initiative aimed at revolutionizing local self-governance for strategic rural transformation". Speaking at the event, Bharadwaj called upon the .

Over 69% voting recorded in second phase of Haryana panchayat elections

Over 69 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Wednesday in the polling to elect members of zila parishad and panchayat samitis in nine districts of Haryana in the second phase of the panchayat polls, officials said here. Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh said polling was held peacefully. Voting for 1,244 panchayat samiti members and 158 zila parishad members in 57 blocks of nine districts -- Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Gurugram, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa, and Sonipat -- began at 7 am and continued till 6 pm. There were 48,67,132 eligible voters in the second phase. In a statement, Singh said, "33,44,672 voters exercised their voting rights till 7.30 pm, which is 69.1 per cent of the total voters of these nine districts." At some polling stations, voters were seen standing in queues even at 7:30 pm, he added. Some incidents of EVM malfunction were reported at some places, but officials involved in the election process got those machines replaced immedia

Voting underway for 1st phase polls to elect panches, sarpanches in Haryana

Polling began on Wednesday to elect panches and sarpanches in nine Haryana districts in the first phase of the three-phase voting. The polling is going on in the districts of Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar, officials said. The polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. A number of voters had queued up since morning and 7.5 poll percentage was recorded in the first two hours of polling. According to an official statement, Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh had on Tuesday said that polling would be held on November 2 for electing 2,607 sarpanches and 25,968 panches in these nine districts. The first phase polls for zila parishads and panchayat samitis in these districts was held on October 30. Arrangements related to drinking water, electricity and wheelchairs for physically challenged voters have been taken care of at all polling booths, he said. According to Singh, there are over 49 lakh voters in the

Rajasthan revises wage of contractual workers, gram panchayat assistants

The Rajasthan government has revised the pay scale of more than 31,000 contractual workers, gram panchayat assistants, education workers and para teachers, Education Minister B D Kalla said. They will now get salary based on the length of their service period. "The pay scale of contractual workers, gram panchayat assistants, education workers and para teachers -- whose estimated number is 31,473 -- has been revised. They will now get a salary of Rs 18,500 after nine years of service and Rs 32,000 after 18 years of service," Kalla said in a tweet on Friday. He also shared a copy of the official order dated October 21. According to the order, these posts have been brought under the purview of 'Rajasthan Contractual Hiring to Civil Post Rules'. The designations of education workers, para teachers and gram panchayat assistants have been changed. Former minister and Congress legislator Harish Chaudhary dubbed the announcement a "Diwali gift" for the people from the state government. W

BJP claims victory on 397 seats in Maharashtra gram panchayat polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday claimed to have won a maximum of 397 seats in gram panchayat elections in Maharashtra. The results of the elections held on Sunday for 1,079 Gram Panchayats were declared on Monday. A voter turnout of more than 75 per cent was recorded. The BJP has become the number one party in gram panchayat elections by winning 397 seats. Along with chief minister Eknath Shinde-led 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena', the joint rally has reached 478," the state BJP said in a social media post. The BJP has managed to win the post of Sarpanch or village head in 235 villages. The Congress claimed to have won 134 seats, Nationalist Congress Party 110, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) 128 and the 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena' 114. As many as 300 Independent candidates have also won the gram panchayat elections. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said voters have given their verdict in favour of 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena'. "The step we took (of parting ways with the U

Voting for gram panchayats rescheduled from Oct 13 to 16 in Maharashtra

The State Election Commission on Monday rescheduled the voting for gram panchayats in Maharashtra to October 16. The voting was earlier scheduled on October 13. The counting of votes will be taken up on October 17 instead of October 14, the SEC said in a statement. The polling will be held for the 1,166 Gram Panchayats or village-level elected governing bodies, which also include the election of sarpanches directly by voters. The voting will begin at 7.30 am and end at 5.30 pm. In the villages where Naxalites could affect the votingthe polling will be concluded by 3 PM, the statement said.