Introduction :- 

Recently, the central government launched a campaign, Sabki Yojana, Sabka Vikas.The campaign will involve people at the grassroots while preparing structured gram panchayat development plans. It will also involve thorough audit of the works done in the last few years. Under the campaign, which will conclude in December this year, gram panchayats will have to publicly display all sources of funds collected and their annual spending, along with future development initiatives. This would help in making the exercise of formulating Gram panchayat development plans more structured which has been largely unorganized till now.

During the campaign ,structured Gram Sabha meetings will be held for preparing Gram Panchayat Development Plan for the next financial year 2019-2020.Monitoring of People’s Plan Campaign would involve geotagged visuals of GS meetings,report of facilitators in standard format, Planplus uploading of GDPD for all 29 sectors,visit to Gram Sabhas for every district /state /central level official of concerned departments and NLM(national level monitors) visits to random Gram Sabhas.

The campaign is being undertaken on a large scale, given the number of Gram Panchayats in the country. Special efforts have been made to ensure maximum participation of vulnerable sections of society like SC/ST/Women etc. The Gram PanchayatDevelopment Plan aims to strengthen the role of 31 lakh elected Panchayat leaders and 2.5 crore SHG Women under DAY-NRLM in effective gram sabha.

There will be a Public Information Campaign of all programmes in Gram Panchayat office and on Gram Samvad App.The structured Gram Sabha meetings will be spread over 2nd October -31st December, with physical presence and presentation by frontline workers/supervisors on 29 sectors – Agriculture, Land improvement, Minor irrigation, Animal husbandry, Fisheries, Social Forestry, Minor forest produce, Small scale industries, Khadi, village and cottage industry,Rural housing,Drinking water ,Fuel and fodder,Roads,Rural electrification ,Non–conventional energy ,Poverty alleviation programme ,Education ,Vocational education,Adult and informal education,libraries,Cultural activities,Markets and fairs ,Health and sanitation ,Family welfare,Women and child development,Social welfare ,Welfare of weaker sections ,Public distribution system and Maintenance of community assets.

Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP):-

It is an annual plan of each panchayat where the villagers would decide where the money should be spent. The Gram Panchayat Development Plan aims to strengthen the role of 31 lakh elected Panchayat leaders and 2.5 crore SHG Women under DAY-NRLM in effective gram sabha.

Panchayats have a significant role to play in effective and efficient implementation of flagship schemes for transformation of rural India. The GDPD will be an intensive and structured exercise for planning at Gram Sabha level through convergence between Panchayati Raj institutions and concerned departments of the State. As part of this Campaign, it is also proposed to complete the exercise of Mission Antodaya (MA) data collection in respect of all Gram Panchayats. This is currently available for about 44,111 GPs and is required to be collected for the balance number of GPs out of a total about 2.49 lakh GPs.

In view of the large scale of the campaign, a special social media campaign has been launched for this period to ensure outreach to the community. This will consist of information about the Panchayats and about the Gram Panchayat Development Plan. It will also have snippets about the type of activities that can be taken up and showcasing of best practices from various Panchayats, so that these can be replicated. In order to enthuse members of the Gram Sabhas, bytes from opinion makers at different levels will also be shared.

Budget 2015-16 had brought bad news for the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Its Rs 7,000 crore budget outlay had been brought down to a meagre Rs 94 crore and major flagship schemes — the Backward regions Grants Fund (BRGF) and Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA) — had been transferred to the states. Amid rumours that the ministry would be folded up and turned into a department under rural development ministry, SM Vijayanand took charge as the panchayati raj secretary.

Significance of GPDP :-

• Stakeholder involvement: Judicious planning with involvement of all stakeholders is critical for success of any activity. Community involvement leads to quality works and acceptance by local inhabitants
• Consolidation of all financial resources at Gram Panchayat (GP) level: Pooling of resources helps in optimum outcomes.
• Development works: They are undertaken in prioritized manner through collective visioning. It also helps to reach marginalized sections and achieve specific development goals within a specified time-frame.
• Responsive government: It activates PRI level bureaucracy and also strengthens bond between government, GP & local inhabitants leading to responsive government.

Some concerns about existing GPDP process :-

• Lack of awareness and Inadequate people’s participation in the gram sabhas.
• Over-emphasis on investment in infrastructure.
• Inadequate public service delivery and e-enablement of panchayats.
• Review of GPDP at Block/ District/ State levels non-existent.
• Lack of integration in Plans at block and district levels.
• GPDP being prepared as a wishlist owing to lack of technical support to GPs for GPDP preparation.