1In a significant development towards strengthening of Panchayats, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj has constituted five functional committees at Panchayat level.
The committees set-up include committee for natural resources management, human resources, employment generation, finance and works. The committee for natural resources management, inter alia, has been tasked to conserve surface and ground water and prevent overflowing of useful water into drains, manage water works, undertake water conservation measures, prevention of encroachment of tank bed land, and protection of forest.
The functional committee on human resources has been tasked to propagate the importance of being literate and organise literacy drives, ensure that all children in the age group of 6-14 are compulsorily enrolled in school, educate people to prevent diseases by following protective health care programmes.
The committee for employment generation and self help groups will facilitate collection and processing of data relating to the unemployed and their employment needs, maintaining lists of manual labour of the village, create awareness among people about the availability wage employment schemes, promotion of handicrafts and village cottage industries and organise marketing of the products of the village artisans at remunerative prices.
The committee for finance and planning is mandated to ensure that all the fees are comprehensively assessed, levied and collected, prepare halqa Panchayat vision document, prepare annual and five-year Halqa Panchayat Development Plans (GPDP).
The committee for works and infrastructure will prepare village data inventory on available physical infrastructure, natural resources and economic potential.
Secretary, RD&PR Sheetal Nanda emphasised that the committees would not only contribute to the overall development of the Panchayat but would also ensure frequent interaction between Sarpanchs, Panchs and functionaries of various departments leading to more information dissemination about various government schemes in the Panchayat.