e-Governance & ICT Initiatives

a) eGramSwaraj – egramswaraj.gov.in -

          To strengthen e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the country, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has launched eGramSwaraj, a user friendly web-based portal. eGramSwaraj aims to bring in better transparency in the decentralised planning, progress reporting and work-based accounting.

b) Local Government Directory – 

          Primary objective of Local Government directory is to facilitate State Departments to update the directory with newly formed panchayats/local bodies, re-organization in Panchayats, conversion from Rural to Urban area etc and provide the same info in public domain. Key Features of Local Government Directory: Generation of unique code for each local government body - each local government body is assigned with a unique code.
Maintenance of local government bodies and its mapping with constituting land region entities. For example - Gram Panchayat mapping with villages.
Mandatory upload of Govt. order for each modification in the directory - to ascertain the users that the data published in LGD is authentic.
Maintenance of historical data - when modifications take place in LGD, the old values/data is archived.
 Provision to maintain state specific local government setup. Compliance with Census 2011 codes. Facility to integrate with state specific standard codes - if any state is following standard codes for state level software applications, the same code can be linked to LGD code.

c) Gram Panchayat Development Plan –

Panchayats have been mandated for the preparation of Panchayat Development Plan (PDP) for economic development and social justice utilizing the resources available to them. The PDP planning process has to be comprehensive and based on participatory process which involves the full convergence with Schemes of all related Central Ministries / Line Departments related to 29 subjects enlisted in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution.

d) AuditOnline – 

          AuditOnline is one of the generic and open source applications developed as a part of Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES) under e-panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) initiated by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR). AuditOnline facilitates the financial audit of accounts at all the three levels of Panchayats viz District, Block and Village Panchayats, Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and Line department by Auditors (State AG/LFA). AuditOnline facilitates recording details for both Internal and External Audit as per the defined process. The software not only facilitates the online and offline audit of accounts but also serves the purpose of maintaining the past audit records of the auditee with associated list of the auditors and audit team involved in the audit and acts as a good financial audit tool and improves transparency & accountability. Also the information is available in public domain and for usage by other PES applications.

e) National Panchayats Award – 

Panchayats have a significant role to play in the effective and efficient implementation of flagship schemes for transformation of rural India. There are many outstanding performers among Panchayats all over the country and such Panchayats need to be identified and encouraged. Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), Government of India has been incentivizing the best performing Panchayats recommended by the State Governments/UT Administrations since 2011-12. The awards are given on the National Panchayati Raj Day celebrated on 24^th of April every year.

1. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar (DDUPSP) is given to best performing Panchayats (District, Intermediate and Gram Panchayat) across the States/UTs in recognition of the good work that is done by PRIs at each level for improving delivery of services and public goods.
Nine thematic categories for GPs are Sanitation, Civic Services (Drinking Water, Street Light, infrastructure), Natural Resource Management, Marginalized section (Women, SC/ST, Disabled, Senior Citizen), Social Sector performance, Disaster Management, Community Based Organizations/Individuals taking voluntary actions to support GPs, Innovation in Revenue Generation and e-Governance.
2. Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar (NDRGGSP) is given to Gram Panchayats/Village Councils for their outstanding contribution to the socio-economic development by involving Gram Sabhas.
3. Gram Panchayat Development Plan Award(GPDPA) is given to Gram Panchayat/ Village Council which has developed its GPDP according to the State/UT specific guidelines prepared in line with the model guidelines issued by MoPR.
4. Child-friendly Gram Panchayat Award (CFGPA) is given to best performing Gram Panchayat/Village Council for adopting child-friendly practices.

f) SVAMITVA Scheme –

SVAMITVA, a Central Sector Scheme of Ministry of Panchayati Raj was nation-wide launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on National Panchayati Raj Day, 24th April 2021 after successful completion of pilot phase of scheme (2020-2021) in 9 states. Scheme is a reformative step towards establishment of clear ownership of property in rural inhabited (Abadi) areas, by mapping of land parcels using drone technology and providing ‘Record of Rights’ to village household owners with issuance of legal ownership cards (Property cards/Title deeds) to the property owners. The Scheme is implemented with the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Revenue Department, State Panchayati Raj Department and Survey of India.  The scheme covers multifarious aspects viz. facilitating monetisation of properties and enabling bank loan; reducing property related disputes; comprehensive village level planning, would be the stepping-stone towards achieving Gram Swaraj in true sense and making rural India Atmanirbhar.

The scheme seeks to achieve the following objectives: -

1. Creation of accurate land records for rural planning and reduce property related disputes.
2. To bring financial stability to the citizens in rural India by enabling them to use their property as a financial asset for taking loans and other financial benefits.
3. Determination of property tax, which would accrue to the GPs directly in States where it is devolved or else, add to the State exchequer.
4. Creation of survey infrastructure and GIS maps that can be leveraged by any department for their use. 
5. To support in preparation of better-quality Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) by making use of GIS maps.

g) Panchayats Charter - 

Citizen's Charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organisation towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation, Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redress, Courtesy and Value for Money. This also includes expectations of the Organisation from the Citizen for fulfilling the commitment of the Organisation.

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, in its efforts to provide more responsive and citizen-friendly governance, coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalize Citizens' Charters in Central Government, State Governments and UT Administrations. It provides guidelines for formulation and implementation of the Charters as well as their evaluation.