Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore: Enhancing Public Services and Governance in Rural India

The "Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore" campaign, launched from December 19 to 24, 2024, aims to improve governance and service delivery to rural areas across India. Launched as part of the Sushasan Saptah 2024, this initiative focuses on responding to public grievances and embracing online services for better reach. The campaign is being held across 660 districts, including the North Eastern states and Union Territories. It strives to bring efficient government services closer to rural households and ensure the grassroots benefit from development policies.

Key Points

• The ‘Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore’ from Sushasan Saptah 2024 is launched on 19 th December to 24 th December 2024 in 660 districts of India.

• The uniqueness lies in that the campaigns aim to enhance good governance and efficient delivery of services to rural households by embracing online services and responding to the public complaints.

Key Statistics on Day 1 (December 19, 2024):

• 660 districts selected Tehsil and Panchayat headquarters to 18543 camps have been offered to children.

• The Government received and addressed grievances from 10,540,013 people.

• The Municipal conducted 1,52,76,268 service delivery applications, out of which total applications were disposed.”

• The campaign includes all the states in the North Eastern seven sisters and Union Territories such as Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, etc.

Regional Participation:

• Madhya Pradesh: 8077 camps

• Uttar Pradesh: 3011 camps

• Rajasthan: 2207 camps

• Chhattisgarh: 1041 camps

• Bihar: 982 camps

Objective:

• The campaign seeks to put an efficient government close to the downtrodden and make services and grievance handling get to the grassroots.

• It is seen as an essential component of the Indian democracy from the ground level, ensuring that development and policies are implemented to common rural.

Operational Portal:

• The web-based application at http://darpgapps.nic.in/GGW24 was developed and activated on December 10, 2024, to monitor the campaign.

Additional Features:

• Good Governance Practices: Cohort 570 good governance practices were also reported.
• Success Stories: It focused on 213 instances with successful outcomes of public grievances filed.

District Level Dissemination Workshop is planned on December 23, 2024, to formally review and deliberate on district administrations' three good governance practices and service delivery innovation.

Local Governance in India

Constitutional autonomy of Panchayat is the process of self-governance of Panchayats through local governing bodies directly elected from the public. It is a tier of government below the Central and State governments the country has in place. Another service that LSG encourages is participatory decision-making which seeks to make people at the grassroots level make decisions on issues affecting them.

Structure of Local Self-Governance

Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI): An organic law for rural governance through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 to provide for rural participation.

Urban Local Bodies (ULB): formed under the provisions of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, these bodies are responsible for the administration of urban India, seeking citizens participation in their planning and growth.

Significance of Local Self-Governance

Participatory Democracy: It enhances democracy since people are involved in the decision making processes leaving out the government.

Accountability and Transparency: Local bodies are easier to reach by the public hence improves the quality of governance.

Responsive and Efficient Governance: District institutions respond to a number of problems that may be unique to the area served and this makes them more efficient in service delivery.

Empowerment: On the other hand it has the advantages of decentralization, and enhancing capacity of marginalized local communities.

Challenges

Financial Constraints: It is well known that the load local bodies suffer from inappropriate financing due to their minor tax authorities and, as a rule, dependence on state subsidies.

Lack of Devolution: Most of the states do not wish to devolve adequate powers and functions to the local levels.

Excessive Bureaucratic Control: There could be subordination to state or central agencies which is a problem with the local bodies.

Capacity and Training Issues: Lack of adequately trained human resource and poor literacy levels of expounds the locals undermine their efficiency.

Political Interference: When political players are involved they tend to subvert the independence of local self governing bodies.

Way Forward

Enhancing Financial Independence: Local bodies should have their own fund resources, for instance, separate rights to impose local taxes.

Greater Devolution of Powers: It should be desirable to provide incentives encouraging states to carry out more of their functions through local bodies.

Training and Capacity Building: There is general consensus for enhancing the governance capacity of local representatives who should be taken through training frequently.

Conclusion 

The "Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore" campaign is a significant step towards enhancing public service delivery and empowering rural India through better governance. By directly engaging with the public and addressing their concerns, it promotes transparency and inclusivity. This initiative reflects the government’s commitment to reaching out to remote areas and ensuring the welfare of underserved communities. With its success in addressing thousands of grievances, it can set a precedent for future governance models. Local self-governance and participatory democracy are key to ensuring lasting development.