Ministry of Panchayati Raj ePRI Study Project Information & … Tamil Nadu Stat… · Ministry of...

Ministry of Panchayati Raj

ePRI Study Project

Information & Services Need Assessment Report for

Panchayati Raj Institutions in

State of Tamil Nadu By

National Informatics Centre Services Inc.

ePRI Study Project Information & Services Needs Assessment Report – Tamil Nadu

National Informatics Centre Services Inc. Page 2 of 219

Confidentiality Statement

This report is intended solely for the information and use of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and should not be used, circulated, quoted or otherwise referred to for any other purpose by any institution or individual other than the Ministry, nor included or referred to in whole or in part in any document without the prior consent of NICSI or the Ministry.



Acknowledgement

The ePRI Mission Mode Project holds great promise for the rural masses as it aims at streamlining the delivery of government services to them through the Panchayats. This is a one of its kind nation-wide IT initiative initiated by Government of India (GoI) and has due sanction from the Prime Minister’s Office. Being a part of this endeavour to computerize the Panchayats has been an enriching experience for us. The study team from the NICSI empanelled firm KPMG is grateful to the District Administration, Panchayati Raj Department and various line departments of Dindigul and Villupuram districts for the kind support and guidance provided during the course of the study phase under ePRI project. Without the extensive co-operation and involvement of the District officials, compilation of the State Information & Services Need Assessment report would not have been possible. The team wishes to express its gratitude to the officers and staff and various line department officials for all their help and guidance from time to time throughout the study

1 State Level

1 Mr. Ashok Vardhan Shetty, Principal Secretary, Rural Development 2 Mr. Lakshmipathy, Joint Director, Rural Department 3 Mr. Abdul Razick, Assistant Director, Rural Department 4 Mr. Gnanabalan, General Manager, TNEDA 5 Mr. Santosh Babu, Managing Director, ELCOT

2 Villupuram District

1 Dr. R. Palaniswamy, Collector 2 Mr. Kathiravan, DRO and Acting Collector 3 Mr. Mahendran, PO DRDA 4 Mr. Harikrishnan, AD Panchayat 5 Mr. Ravichandran, Superintendent, Rural Development



3 Dindigul District

1 Mr. Vallalar, Collector of Dindigul District 2 Mr. Arun Mani, PO DRDA 3 Mr. Gunasekaran, AD Panchayat, DRDA 4 Mr. Renganathan, APO Mahalir Thittam

We would also like to thank our team members for their support and guidance during our study The Project Team consisted of: 1. National Informatics Center (NIC)

• Mr. Krishna Prasad, State Informatics Officer • Mr. Srinivasa Raghavan, Senior Technical Officer • Mr. Jayabalan, Scientist-D • Mr. Varadarajan, DIO-Dindigul • Smt. Santhi Devi, DIO-Villupuram

2. KPMG Team

• Mr.Gautam Sinha, Principal Consultant • Mr. Nilesh Gauda, Principal Consultant • Mr. Sreeram, Senior Consultant • Ms. Abhiramalakshmi, Senior Consultant • Ms. Gauthami, Junior Consultant • Ms. Shweta Shivangi, Junior Consultant

3. NGO

• Mr. Kris Dev, ICT & e-Gov Consultant • Mr. Shiva Raman

We sincerely hope that this report leads to meaningful computerization of the Panchayati Raj Institutions and translates into an IT driven empowerment of the Panchayats.



Table of Contents

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................................................13

2 SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS...............................................................................................................................17

3 PROJECT BACKGROUND........................................................................................................................................19

4 APPROACH & METHODOLOGY FOR INS STUDY ............................................................................................24

4.1 STUDY METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................... 25

4.1.1. Stakeholder Consultation ............................................................................................................................................... 25

4.1.2 Identification of interviewee groups................................................................................................................................ 27

4.2 DATA GATHERING TOOLS ................................................................................................................................................ 28

4.2.1 Interview questionnaires.................................................................................................................................................. 28

4.2.2. Data capturing templates................................................................................................................................................ 28

4.3 SERVICES IDENTIFICATION METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................... 28

5 STATUS OF PANCHAYATI RAJ..............................................................................................................................30

5.1 VISION OF STATE PR DEPARTMENT .................................................................................................................................. 33

5.2 PANCHAYATI RAJ ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE (LEVEL, DESIGNATION) .............................................................................. 34

5.2.1. PR Department................................................................................................................................................................ 35

5.2.2. Panchayati Raj Institutions ............................................................................................................................................ 39

5.3 DEVOLUTION STATUS........................................................................................................................................................... 40

5.3.1. Funds .............................................................................................................................................................................. 42

5.3.2. Functions ........................................................................................................................................................................ 48

5.3.3. Functionaries .................................................................................................................................................................. 58

5.3.4. Activity Mapping ............................................................................................................................................................. 59

5.3.5. Challenges....................................................................................................................................................................... 60

5.4 PR GOVERNANCE ................................................................................................................................................................. 60

5.4.1. G2G Functional Areas.................................................................................................................................................... 62



5.4.2. Participation in Committees ........................................................................................................................................... 74

5.5 BEST PRACTICES & KEY LEARNING RELATED TO PANCHAYATI RAJ GOVERNANCE............................................................. 76

6 INFORMATION AND SERVICE NEEDS ................................................................................................................78

6.1 INFORMATION NEEDS OF STATE PR DEPARTMENT AND OTHER LINE DEPARTMENTS............................................................ 79

6.2. INFORMATION AND SERVICE NEEDS OF PRI (DISTRICT PANCHAYAT/ BLOCK PANCHAYAT/ VILLAGE PANCHAYAT) .......... 82

6.3 INFORMATION AND SERVICE NEEDS OF CITIZENS............................................................................................................ 87

7 E-GOVERNANCE READINESS..............................................................................................................................100

7.1 INITIATIVES FOR COMPUTERIZATION OF PRI ...................................................................................................................... 101

7.2 EXTENT OF INTEGRATION OF NEGP INITIATIVES WITH PRI ........................................................................................... 103

7.3 ICT INFRASTRUCTURE ASSESSMENT ............................................................................................................................. 105

7.4 CIVIL WORK ASSESSMENT ............................................................................................................................................. 107

8 STATE CAPACITY ASSESSMENT........................................................................................................................110

8.1 CAPACITIES (PRI PERSONNEL, TECHNICAL PROFESSIONALS, ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICIALS ETC.) ................................... 110

8.2 SKILLS AND CAPABILITIES............................................................................................................................................. 114

8.3 TRAINING ...................................................................................................................................................................... 117

9 CITIZEN SERVICE DELIVERY.............................................................................................................................127

9.1 CITIZEN SERVICE DELIVERY MECHANISM.......................................................................................................................... 128

9.2 INITIATIVES TAKEN BY PRI FOR CITIZEN SERVICE DELIVERY ....................................................................................... 142

9.3 INITIATIVES TAKEN BY THE STATE IMPACTING SERVICE DELIVERY TO RURAL POPULACE............................................. 143

10 WAY FORWARD.......................................................................................................................................................148

10.1 SERVICES FINALIZED FOR PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING.................................................................................................... 148

10.1.1 Existing Services .......................................................................................................................................................... 148

10.1.2 New Services ............................................................................................................................................................. 149

11 ANNEXURE................................................................................................................................................................151

11.1 LIST OF INTERVIEWEES .................................................................................................................................................. 151



11.1.1 State level .................................................................................................................................................................. 151

11.1.2 Villupuram district ................................................................................................................................................... 153

11.1.3 Dindigul District ....................................................................................................................................................... 157

11.2 NOTE ON PANCHAYAT EMPOWERMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY INCENTIVE SCHEME (PEAIS) ......................................... 159

11.3 MINUTES OF KEY MEETINGS HELD ................................................................................................................................. 162

11.3.1 Meeting with Principal Secretary RD held on 01-July-2009 .................................................................................. 162

11.3.2 Meeting with SIRD Faculty on 03- July-2009......................................................................................................... 165

11.3.3 Meeting with Commissioner of Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection................................................................. 169

11.3.5 Villupuram District Workshop held on 30-July-2009 ............................................................................................. 174

11.3.6 Villupuram Gram Sabha held on 4th August 2009................................................................................................. 181

11.3.7 Villupuram Final District Workshop held on 25th August 2009............................................................................ 187

11.3.8 Dindigul Meeting with PO – DRDA ....................................................................................................................... 192

11.3.9 Dindigul Meeting with Assistant Director – Panchayat on 20-July-2009 .............................................................. 198

11.3.10 Dindigul Meeting Gram Sabha at Nagampatti Village Panchayat on 29-July-2009 .............................................. 200

11.3.11 Dindigul District Workshop on 2- September-2009.................................................................................................. 203

11.4 GLOSSARY..................................................................................................................................................................... 209

11.5 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................................................. 213

11.6 BRIEF PROFILE OF THE TWO DISTRICTS .......................................................................................................................... 214

11.6.1 Villupuram District.................................................................................................................................................. 214

11.6.2 Dindigul District .......................................................................................................................................................... 217



List of Tables

S.No Particular Table No Pg. No.

1 Population-wise break-up of the

no. of Village Panchayats. Table 3.1 20

2 PRI details about Villupuram

District. Table 3.2 22

3 PRI details about Dindigul District. Table 3.3 23

4 Reservation details regarding the

State Local Bodies. Table 5.1 33

5 Twelfth Central Finance

Commission Grant. Table 5.2 43

6 Third State Finance Commission

Grant. Table 5.3 44

7 Sources of revenue for the Village

Panchayat. Table 5.4 45

8 Sources of revenue for the

Panchayat Union. Table 5.5 46

9 Devolution status of the 29

subjects. Table 5.6 48

10 List of Centrally Sponsored

Schemes studied by the team. Table 5.7 60

11 Involvement of the PRIs in various

Centrally Sponsored Schemes. Table 5.8 61

12 Role of PRIs in Planning. Table 5.9 62




13 Role of PRIs in Monitoring and

Implementation. Table 5.10 67

14 Accounting details with reference

to CSS Table 5.11 72

15 Information & Service Needs of the

State PR Department and line

departments.

Table 6.1 79

16 Information Needs of the Village,

Block and District Panchayats Table 6.2a 84

17 Services Needs of the Village,

Block and District Panchayats Table 6.2b 85

18 Other Needs of the Village, Block

and District Panchayats Table 6.2c 88

19 Information Needs of Citizens at

Dindigul Table 6.3a 89

20 Service Needs of Citizens at

Dindigul Table 6.3b 91

21 Other Needs of Citizens at Dindigul Table 6.3c 90

22 Information Needs of Citizens at

Villupuram Table 6.3d 94

23 Service Needs of Citizens at

Villupuram Table 6.3e 96

24 Other Needs of Citizens at Table 6.3f 97




Villupuram

25 Details of seats and offices in Rural

Local Bodies. Table 8.1 113

26 Details of the strength of the

Administrative Personnel. Table 8.2 114

27 Number of officials actually present

vis-à-vis sanctioned Table 8.3 115

28 Details about the SHGs and

trainings imparted. Table 8.4 116

29 Indicative list of the proficiency

levels. Table 8.5 119

30 Details about the training provided

year-wise. Table 8.6 120

31

Level of participants as per their

needs and responsibilities Table 8.7 121

32

Training provided at SIRD for the

period 2008-09 Table 8.8 123

33 Infrastructure at SIRD Table 8.9 126

34 Details about SHGs. Table 9.1 144

35 Services rendered by CSCs at

Villupuram. Table 9.2 145

36 Services rendered by CSCs at

Dindigul. Table 9.3 146




37 List of Existing Services. Table 10.1 149

38 List of New Services. Table 10.2 151



List of Figures

S.No. Particular Image No Pg No

1 Map of Tamil Nadu Picture 3.1 20

2 Map of Villupuram District. Picture 3.2 21

3 Map of Dindigul District. Picture 3.3 22

4 Organization structure of the State

PR Department and the PRIs. Figure 5.1 34

5 Organization structure of the State

PR Department Figure 5.2 35

6 District Level Hierarchy Figure. 5.3 36

7 Block Level Hierarchy Figure.5.4 37

8 Village Level Hierarchy Figure 5.5 38

9 Gram Sabha proceedings at

Nagampatti Village, Dindigul Picture 6.1 86


Nagampatti Village, Dindigul Picture 6.2 87


Neelamangalam Village, Villupuram Picture 6.3 91


Neelamangalam Village, Villupuram Picture 6.4 92

13 Locations of SIRD and the five

RIRDs. Figure 8.1 118



1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) seeks to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for long-term growth of e-Governance within the country. The NeGP envisages significant investments in areas such as Government Process Reengineering, Capacity Building, Training Assessment and Awareness. The plan aims at improving the quality, accessibility and effectiveness of government services to citizens with the help of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). A number of Mission Mode Projects (MMP) are proposed to be implemented at the center, state and integrated service levels to achieve these objectives. In view of the above, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has initiated the study of ePRI project in 38 districts selected across 27 states in the country. MoPR is proposing ePRI as a Mission Mode Project with a vision to equip all three levels of Panchayats namely District, Block and Village Panchayats with ICT infrastructure, Broadband and trained manpower with the objective of achieving effective governance. The ePRI study teams from the National Informatics Centre Services Inc (NICSI) empanelled consultants have been assigned the responsibility of interacting with the PRIs and the line departments to understand their information and services needs as well as to capture their expectations from the ePRI project. The teams were also required to access the synergies that can be obtained by aligning the ePRI project to various other initiatives being undertaken by the state government and/or the line departments. The project has been conceptualized to be executed in four phases as follows,

• The Initiation and Planning phase (Phase I) • The Information and Services Needs Assessment phase (Phase II) • The Process Re-engineering phase (Phase III) • The Detailed Project Report preparation phase (Phase IV)

The present report “Information and Service Needs Assessment Report” is the outcome of the Phase II of the project. The study was carried out in the state in association with Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department of Tamil Nadu as per the guidelines formulated by the Government of India. The study endeavors to cover the current level of computerization and the information and services needs assessment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions operating at different tiers of the government system. As part of the study methodology, the team interacted with various stakeholders in the state Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department and with various officials in the state line



departments to find out the current status and expectations from the Panchayati Raj Institutions. The team also captured the challenges faced by them in the implementation of schemes or in providing their mandated services. The team also undertook field visits to 2 identified districts, namely Villupuram and Dindigul; and a block and a village each under these districts. At Villupuram, Kallakuruchi and Neelamangalam were the identified block and village respectively whereas at Dindigul, Athoor was the block and Nagampatti was the village identified for the field study. The team interacted with government officials and elected members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions at the district, block and the village levels. The team also held detailed discussions with the citizens at the Gram Sabhas organized in both the districts. Through the interactions held with the various stakeholders, the team gathered and validated information about the implementation of schemes, citizen service delivery mechanism, current initiatives, information and services needs and their expectations from the ePRI project. This helped the team to prioritize 15 citizen centric services that are presently being delivered by the Panchayats and also to identify 5 new services that can be delivered with the involvement of PRIs as per the desires of the citizens. During the course of the study, the team gathered relevant data and recorded them in the State, District and Gram Sabha Questionnaires. The team also collected reference materials like Government Orders, circulars, guidelines about schemes, report formats of the various line departments and other relevant working papers related to government functioning across the three tiers. This report aims to capture the information and services needs of the various stakeholders at different levels. It details about the roles and responsibilities of the Panchayats at various levels for the execution of schemes and delivery of services, the infrastructure requirements and the readiness of the state for computerization and e-governance initiatives. The section on the ‘Status of Panchayati Raj’ aims to provide insight about the current scenario in the state of Tamil Nadu with respect to devolution of funds, functions and functionaries. It discusses the representation of Panchayati Raj members in various committees and their role in planning, implementation, monitoring and accounting aspects. The State government has released several Government Orders (GOs) clearly defining the devolution of powers to the 3 levels of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. However, there is not much involvement of the District and Block Panchayats in the planning process of various schemes.



Additionally, the role of the Village Panchayat, with respect to planning, implementation and monitoring, varies with different Centrally Sponsored Schemes. There is also inadequate awareness about the various schemes and initiatives among the rural citizens. The section on ‘Information and Services Needs’, is one of the most important sections of the report which endeavors to understand and capture the information as well as services needs of various stakeholders namely the state PR Department, line departments, the elected members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions and the rural citizens. The current system and processes are not streamlined and there is lack of adequate automation/computerization of the workflow processes. At present, there is no central database to record and track the details of the citizens with respect to the benefits availed by them under various schemes. There is no integrated mechanism for the information flow in horizontal and vertical tiers of the government system. Moreover, citizens have to make several trips to government offices to meet with the concerned officials in order to avail the necessary services and benefits. The section on eGovernance Readiness highlights the current ICT infrastructure and manpower details across the various levels. It presents the readiness of the Panchayati Raj Institutions at different tiers along with the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj at the state level, to undertake the ICT initiates with respect to ePRI project. With the objective of delivering efficient and transparent services to the citizens and automating the workflow and internal processes of the administration, the State government has taken several initiatives. Under the NeGP, the State has successfully implemented State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and also commissioned the State Data Centre (SDC). Works related to certification and implementations of Common Service Centres (CSC) are also in progress. Computers have been provided to each Village Panchayat in the state. However, the same are not operational due to lack of trained manpower.



The section on ‘State Capacity Assessment’ provides details in terms of skills, competencies and training needs across various tiers of the PRI functionaries and the associated staff members to execute their mandated functions. The state government has taken several initiatives with the aim of augmenting the capacity building activities of the government officials and the elected representatives through institutes such as State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and five Regional Institutes of Rural Development (RIRD). Although trainings are provided to the officials and elected members, they are more or less a one-time activity. The section on Citizen Service Delivery describes the mechanism of service delivery at all three tiers of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. It also touches upon the initiatives taken by the state and the Panchayati Raj Institutions to provide better service delivery through alternate modes and channels. The service model in the state is mostly government-owned and is carried out by the line department officials. The extent of involvement of the Panchayats in service delivery is limited. Few CSCs, based on PPP model, are presently operational. However, Government to Citizen (G2C) Services have not been initiated through those centers yet. The report concludes in terms of ‘Way Forward’, stating the list of services identified as part of further study and comprehensive process re-engineering requirements to improve citizen service delivery.



2 SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS Status of Panchayat Raj

• The organizational structures at the State, District, Block and Panchayat levels are defined in the Government Orders (GO) and powers have been devolved to the 3 levels of PRIs.

• Funds, functions and functionaries have been laid out as per GOs. No Activity Mapping exercise has been performed. (Refer section 5.3.4)

• There is no organic linkage between the three tiers of the PRIs. (Refer section 5.2) • When works span across multiple departments, there is no well defined single-point

responsibility in the Central/State/Local government for execution of schemes and delivery of services. (Refer Section 5.3)

Information and Service Needs

• There is an absence of data recording facility at a central location to record the details of benefits availed by citizens under various schemes. Some people avail multiple benefits under various schemes, while several others are deprived of the benefits entitled to them (Refer section 6.1)

• District Planning Committees (DPC) is not a truly bottom-up initiative. (Refer section 6.3) • The computers provided to the Panchayat President’s offices remain idle due to absence of

trained manpower. (Refer section 6.2) • Although, online grievance filing facility has been made available, in reality, the citizens do

not avail this service. They prefer to hand over the grievance petition personally to the Collector. (Refer section 6.3)

eGovernance Readiness

• With respect to integration of NEGP initiatives with PRIs, TN SWAN roll out has been

planned in 2 phases – Horizontal roll out (backbone along the length and breadth of TN) and Vertical rollout (providing connectivity to all government organizations at all levels – State, District, Block and Village). (Refer section 7.2)

• ICT infrastructure assessment of the two districts shows that there is only one computer available at District Panchayat office. There are sufficient computers provided at the BDO office. The computers at the Village Panchayat offices are not operational due to lack of trained manpower. (Refer section 7.3)



Capacity Assessment

• Linux is the Operating System that has been commonly installed on the computers across the 3 tiers. About 70 percent of the Village Panchayats have Linux operating system based computers. The choice of using Linux is based on factors such as cost benefits, open source software, less prone to virus attacks and less frequent patch updates. It was observed that PRI members have difficulty in working on Linux due to insufficient training and lack of working knowledge in computers. (Refer section 8.3.1)

• Capacity building activities are more or less a one-time activity. Adequate training through the use of ICT tools is not being imparted to the officials and the elected members. (Refer section 8.2)

Citizen Service Delivery The Service Delivery Model is completely Government owned with no involvement of an external agency (CSCs are built on PPP model but they do not offer any G2C services at present). Although there are numerous services that are provided to the citizens, the extent of involvement of the Panchayats is limited. Most of the citizen centric services are executed by the line departments. Citizens make multiple visits to the offices to avail services. (Refer section 9.1)



3 PROJECT BACKGROUND Computerization and IT enablement of government functioning has received a high impetus with the implementation of the National eGovernance Program of Government of India and various states have realized the importance of eGovernance. This has led to a concerted thrust towards computerizing the functioning of the State line departments in most of the States. The result of this is cognizable and has brought in its wake significant efficiencies in the departmental functioning. The Ministry for Panchayati Raj is keen on executing the computerization of PRIs in a fast track and time bound manner. To achieve this MoPR in association with NIC has conceptualized a nation-wide study to take stock of the needs of citizens as well as various government entities involved in the delivery of developmental schemes and services. This study is expected to result in drafting the requirements of computerization for PRIs across the country and is being undertaken across 27 states within a duration of 23 weeks. This initiative poses unique challenges, as the coverage of the programme is in itself unprecedented. The geographic and demographic coverage of the programme, therefore, make it a challenging initiative to rollout. In addition, the level of devolution of powers to Gram Panchayats across the country varies depending upon the administrative arrangements in a particular State/UT. This implies that the services that could be delivered to the citizens by Village Panchayats in one State/UT could differ from another. Consequently, design of the process re-engineering, computerization and capacity building programme would face significant challenges. This also leads to related challenges around stakeholder’s involvement in the programme. This project entails carrying out the following three activities: 1. Identification of Information and Services Needs of Stakeholders 2. Process Re-engineering and 3. Preparation of Detailed Project Report for the MMP The project execution was primarily carried out across the following five tiers: 1. Ministry of Panchayati Raj (or ‘Ministry’) level 2. State level 3. District Panchayat level 4. Block Panchayat level 5. Village Panchayat level



The study was conducted in two districts namely Dindigul and Villupuram. In both the districts, following are the Block and Gram Panchayats selected for the study,

District Block Gram Panchayat

Villupuram Kallakurichi Neelamangalam Vedasandur Nagampatti

Dindigul Athoor Sitharevu

About ePRI in Tamil Nadu

There are 12,620 Village Panchayats in the State spread across 32 districts and 385 blocks. The average number of Village Panchayats per district is 421 and per Block is 32. Some of the districts like Villupuram (1104) and Tiruvannamalai (860) have a large number of Village Panchayats while others like The Nilgiris (35) and Kanniyakumari (99) have comparatively fewer Village Panchayats. The population too varies widely where some of the Village Panchayats have population less than 500 while others exceed 25,000. The below table gives the population-wise break-up of the number of Village Panchayats,

Table 3.1: Population-wise break-up of the no. of Village Panchayats

S. No Population range No. of Village Panchayats

1 Below 500 66

2 501-1000 1177

3 1001-3000 7243*

4 3001-5000 2569

5 5001-10000 1379

6 Above 10000 186

Total

12,620 *Including the two newly

formed village Panchayats in

Cuddalore district.

Picture 3.1: Map of Tamil Nadu.





Districts at Glance Villupuram

Picture 3.2: Map of Villupuram District

Table 3.2: PRI details about Villupuram District

Area 7222.03 Hec.

Blocks 22 Village Panchayats 1104 Panchayat Union 22

District Panchayat 1 Population 29,60,373



Dindigul

Picture 3.3: Map of Dindigul District.

Table 3.3: PRI details about Dindigul District

Area 6266.64 Sq kms.

Blocks 14 Village Panchayats 306 Panchayat Union 14

District Panchayat 1 Population 19,23,014



Objective: The section captures the current assessment of progress of Panchayati Raj Institutions as institution of local self governance. This includes vision of State PR department, status of devolution of powers to PRIs and PR Governance in terms of planning, monitoring, implementing and accounting. Involvement of PRI in functioning of schemes is also a part of the section.

4 APPROACH & METHODOLOGY FOR INS STUDY

.It is important to have a well defined approach and

methodology for executing a project of this magnitude in

the desired timeframe. Accordingly, a four phase

approach has been designed as illustrated below:

1 The Initiation and Planning phase (Phase I) 2 The INS Needs assessment phase (Phase II) 3 The Process Re-engineering phase (Phase III) 4 The DPR preparation phase (Phase IV)

Note: M & E – Monitoring and Evaluation

1 The Initiation and Planning phase (Phase I) primarily focused on setting the tone for execution of the project. The key outcomes of this phase were identification of stakeholders, the consultation mechanism with the stakeholders and formalizing the deliverable templates.



During this phase data gathering tools and templates were also prepared, which were targeted on focused information capture.

2 The INS Needs Assessment phase (Phase II) involved interaction, including a survey, with

the identified stakeholders. This phase resulted in forming an understanding of the needs of the stakeholders and helped in identification of the services. The citizen centric services that are currently being delivered through PRIs and the services that are expected to be delivered through PRIs were also identified and studied.

3 The Process Re-engineering phase (Phase III) would entail the in-depth analysis of the

identified services and creating the As-Is process document. This will lead to the To-Be scenario, where the services would be re-engineered for optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.

4 The DPR preparation phase (Phase IV) will be the eventual outcome of the study where

apart from the State specific DPR, a national DPR would also prepared. This national DPR would be shared with the states to enable them to directly undertake implementation of e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions.

The following sections provide details about the approach and methodology adopted during the INS Study.

4.1 Study Methodology

4.1.1. Stakeholder Consultation Establishing Project Core Team A Project Execution Unit (PEU), comprising of representatives from MoPR, NIC and the agencies appointed, has been set up as a core team at the central level. It has been entrusted with tasks such as identification of various stakeholders, orientation of the field teams, establishing reporting and escalation mechanisms, providing ongoing guidance and support. PEU is also responsible for the co-ordination of the designated field teams for each of the States/UTs undertaking the INS Study. The PEU identified a set of about 30 centrally sponsored schemes spread across 11 Central Line Ministries that should be taken up for study. The primary criterion used for selection of these schemes was that there should be an existing or envisaged role of PRIs in the scheme execution. Central Line Ministry Study



The project kicked-off at the national level and was chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The senior officials from various stakeholder line ministries also attended the meeting to provide their inputs. A group of 12 consultants was formed to conduct this study over a period of 2 weeks. The group was provided orientation by the PEU regarding the objectives of the study and the project implementation approach. The PEU organized the group into three teams and assigned Central Line Ministries (CLM) to them. The teams were responsible for interviewing stakeholders from the Central Line Ministries (CLM) to capture information related to the implementation of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and to understand the expectations of the CLMs from the ePRI project. Field study for identifying INS needs of Citizens The Field team comprised the State Informatics Officer (SIO)/District Information Officers (DIOs) of the State/District, the team of consultants and the domain experts drawn from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs), retired Panchayati Raj (PR) officials as required. The study was conducted across all the three tiers of Panchayati Raj administration, namely District Panchayat, Block Panchayat and Village Panchayat, which aided in the identification of information and services needs of citizens. The initial phase started with the field team holding discussions with the State Rural Development / Panchayati Raj Department officials to gain the knowledge of the PRI framework established by the State under the State Panchayat Raj Act. Field teams gathered information on various schemes, centrally and state sponsored, that were being provided to the citizens, using questionnaires and held discussions with various line departments of the state such as Agriculture, Health and Family welfare, Revenue, Energy, Social welfare, Women and Child Welfare to name a few. The Field team also met support departments and agencies such as Information Technology, Finance, ELCOT (TNSWAN implementation agency), Service Centre Agency (SCA) handling CSCs for the assessment of the existing technology infrastructure being implemented within the State. Field team observed and examined various artifacts such as the department GOs, annual reports, Citizen Charters, status reports for the projects under implementation, accounting and monitoring reports etc., to support the captured information and discussions. Field team spent approximately two weeks at the State level to collect required information for the study. After gathering the relevant information at the State level, the Field team moved to the District level to continue with a similar exercise of collecting information on the existing schemes and services and their delivery modes to the beneficiaries. Key officials whom the team met in the district administration included the District Collector, Acting Collector, Project Officer. District Rural Development Authority, (PO-DRDA), Block Development Officer (BDO), Block Panchayat and



BDO, Village Panchayat and various committees formed under the State Panchayati Raj Act. The Field team spent two weeks at the district level to collect the required information for the study. At the Block Panchayat and Village Panchayat level the Field team, apart from interacting with the government officials, undertook interactions with the villagers by organizing a Gram Sabha and discussions with focused groups. The team attended one Gram Sabha and met the relevant stakeholders to understand their needs of new services and the actual implementation of various schemes at the ground level. With the help of BDOs, the team was able to do site inspections in various villages, in order to understand the progress of the work and the overall impact of the schemes in the welfare of the rural citizens. The Team also met the villagers and inquired about their wish list from the Panchayat. Later, the team translated the wish list of the villagers into new services that can be offered through PRIs. The Field team also made necessary enquiries at each level about the existing technology and related infrastructure such as buildings, electricity availability, network connectivity etc. and highlighted the required gaps in the requirements to aid in the successful implementation of e-governance projects like ePRI.

4.1.2 Identification of interviewee groups

The PEU identified the various interviewee groups. Questionnaires and data gathering templates for these interviewee groups were also prepared. The Field team customized the questionnaires and data gathering templates and prepared a comprehensive list of interviewees based on discussions with State level stakeholders including State and District/Block administration. The list included the following key people:

• Panchayat officials and support staff – Block Development Officers, Gram Panchayat members and support staff in the village such as Village Health Nurse, Anganwadi workers, Assistant Executive Engineer – Water Resources, Taluk Officers, Village Administrative Officer, Revenue Inspector, Assistant Education Officer, Project Officer- Health Services, representatives of village co-operative society and leaders of Self-Help Groups etc.

• Specific focus groups - Additional discussions have been conducted with specific focus groups such as farmers, teachers, women, SC/ST families and minorities.

• Villagers - The study team also interacted with the identified villagers through ‘Participatory Research Assessment’ technique (PRA) facilitated by the Panchayat members. PRA emphasizes on the process of sequential reflection and action, carried out with and by local people rather than on them. Local knowledge and perspectives are not only acknowledged but also form the basis for research and planning. PRA is also used by the Agriculture



department to get the initial list of inputs for which subsidies would be required under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) scheme.

4.2 Data gathering tools

4.2.1 Interview questionnaires

Exhaustive templates were formulated by the PEU team based on the project scope and the information required. These templates were then circulated to the field teams. All the relevant information depending upon the objective of the template was captured by the field teams based on their interactions with the identified stakeholders. Field teams observed and examined various artifacts at various levels to support the information captured during the INS Study. 4.2.2. Data capturing templates

A data capturing template was prepared for capturing the existing ICT infrastructure available at the State for the PRIs.

4.3 Services identification methodology

The initial list of services was prepared based on the list of services arrived after discussing with the Project Officer, District Rural Development Authority (DRDA) at the district level. The list was modified based on discussions with Panchayat presidents and Panchayat office personnel at the Village Panchayat level. This list underwent further modifications based on discussion with the citizens at Gram Sabha and Gram Focus Groups. This list was finalized after receiving feedback from various stakeholders at the workshops conducted at the district level. The workshop included stakeholders such as District Panchayat Chairman, Panchayat Union Chairman, Panchayat Presidents, Line department officials from district and block, Project Officer and other officials from Rural Development Department and the District Collector The 20 G2C services are classified as follows:-

• 15 AS – IS and TO – BE for the services currently provided by/involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions

• 5 New services (out of the Wish list of the citizens) for TO – BE report The team captured the AS – IS process of how that information is collected by Panchayati Raj officials and transferred to the concerned person in the Line Department(s). This does not include



the internal functioning of the concerned line department for processing the application. This phase resulted in forming an understanding of the needs of the stakeholders and in identification of the services.



Objective: The section captures the current assessment of progress of Panchayati Raj Institutions as institution of local self governance. This includes vision of State PR department, status of devolution of powers to PRIs and PR Governance in terms of planning, monitoring, implementing and accounting. Involvement of PRI in functioning of schemes is also a part of the section.

5 STATUS OF PANCHAYATI RAJ

The 73rd Amendment

The legislative origins of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments date back to the Constitution (64th Amendment) Bill, which was introduced in the parliament in July 1989.

The key mandatory provisions that aimed at strengthening the structure of representative democracy and political representation at the local

Level are as follows, • The establishment in every State (except those with populations below 2 million) of rural

local bodies (Panchayats) at the village, intermediate and district levels (Article 243B) • Direct elections to all seats in the Panchayats at all levels (Article 243C) • Compulsory elections to Panchayats every five years with the elections being held before

the end of the term of the incumbent Panchayat. In the event that a Panchayat is dissolved prematurely, elections must be held within six months, with the newly elected members serving out the remainder of the five year term (Article 243E)

• Mandatory reservation of seats in all Panchayats at all levels for Dalits and Adivasis in proportion to their share of the Panchayat population (Article 243D)

• Mandatory reservation of one-third of all seats in all Panchayats at all levels for women, with the reservation for women applying to the seats reserved for Dalits and Adivasis as well (Article 243D)

• Indirect elections to the position of Panchayat Chairperson at the intermediate and district levels (Article 243C)

• Mandatory reservation of the position of Panchayat Chairperson at all levels for Dalits and Adivasis in proportion to their share in the State population (Article 243D)

• Mandatory reservation of one-third of the positions of Panchayat Chairperson at all three levels for women (Article 243D)

The notable discretionary provisions for the State are as follows,

• Endowment of the Gram Sabha—the electorate of a Village Panchayat—with powers and functions at the village level (Article 243A)

• Devolution of powers and authority to Panchayats to enable them to function as institutions of self-government. In particular, the provision calls for devolution of powers and



responsibilities for the preparation of plans and implementation of schemes for development and social justice dealing with an impressively wide range of items, which are listed in a new schedule, Schedule XI, of the constitution (Article 243G)

Although some provisions of the 73rd and 74th amendments were mandatory, the design and degree of implementation of many of the key reforms mentioned in the amendments were left to the discretion of the individual States. This resulted in significant variations in the scope and extent of devolution across the States in India. The passage of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments in 1994 has been hailed as a landmark in the evolution of local governments in India. The amendments provided rural and urban local governments with a constitutional status that they had previously lacked and reinforced this status by mandating regular elections to locally elected bodies. Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1994 The Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1958 had the following salient features,

• A two-tier system of Village Panchayats and Panchayat Unions. • Creation of Panchayat Unions co terminus with the Community Development Blocks. • Village Panchayat Presidents to become ex-officio members of the Panchayat Union

Councils with the Chairperson of the Panchayat Union Council directly/indirectly elected. • Entrusting the Panchayat Unions and Village Panchayats with a large number of

developmental and welfare functions. • Abolition of District Boards. • Creation of District Development Council as an advisory body.

Following the Central Amendments, which came into force in 1993, the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act was passed in 1994. The 1994 Act replaced the earlier Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1958 and brought about the following major changes in the functioning of the local bodies,

• A three-tier system of local government at the Village Panchayat, Panchayat Union and District Panchayat levels

• A new system of quota for representatives of dalits, tribals and women

The Act paved the way for • The Panchayats and Unions to plan for their developmental needs • The constitution of a District Planning Committee, to prepare a development plan for the

district, based on the plans given by the Panchayats and Panchayat Unions



• The constitution of a State Election Commission, as an independent body, for conducting elections to local bodies

• The constitution of a State Finance Commission to lay down policies for devolution of financial powers and allocations to local bodies

• The revival of Gram Sabhas Some of the important changes brought about by the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution and the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1994 are listed below:

• Introduction of a three tier system – at the Village, Intermediate (Block) and District levels. • Mandatory conduct of Local Body elections every five years and conduct of elections before

the expiry of the duration of the Local Body or before the expiry of a period of 6 months from the date of its dissolution.

• Introduction of reservation of seats (i.e. ward members) and offices (i.e. Chairpersons / Presidents) for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in every Local Body with provision for rotation of the reserved seats and offices.

• Introduction of reservation of one-third of total number of seats and offices for women with provision for rotation.

• Constitution of a State Election Commission as an independent body to conduct elections to both rural and urban Local Bodies regularly.

• Establishment of a State Finance Commission to recommend devolution of resources from the State Government to the rural and urban Local Bodies.

• Constitution of a District Planning Committee to consolidate the plans prepared by the rural and urban Local Bodies in the district with a view to prepare a comprehensive development plan for the district.

• Introduction of the concept of ‘Grama Sabha’ comprising all registered voters in a Village Panchayat.

Tamil Nadu rural local bodies As per TN Panchayat Act, 1994, every Panchayat Union Council consists of members elected from the wards in the Panchayat Union in the proportion of one member for five thousand population of the Panchayat Union area. For District Panchayat, members are elected at the rate of one member for wards having a population of fifty thousand at the district Panchayat. In local body elections, a village citizen casts 4 votes, one each for electing the Panchayat ward member, Panchayat President, Panchayat Union member and District Panchayat councillor. Subsequent to the election, the Panchayat Union Chairman is selected amongst the Panchayat Union members. Similarly, the District Panchayat Chairman is selected amongst the District



Panchayat councillors. Thus, the District Panchayat Chairman, District Vice-Chairman and Panchayat Union Chairman, Panchayat Union Vice-Chairman are indirectly elected by the Panchayat members whereas Panchayat President is directly elected by the citizens. The below table presents the current status of the Local Bodies w.r.t reservation under the various categories,

Table 5.1: Reservation details regarding the State Local Bodies

Category of Reservation

Total No. of seats

Reserved for

women

Reserved for

SCs

Reserved for STs

No. % No. % No. %

I. District Panchayats

District Panchayat Chairpersons

29 10 34% 7 24% 0 0%

District Panchayat Ward Members

656 226 34% 154 23% 8 1%

II. Block Panchayats

Panchayat Union Council Chairpersons

385 140 36% 87 23% 4 1%

Panchayat Union Ward Members

6570 2302 35% 1534 23% 64 1%

III. Village Panchayats

Village Panchayat Presidents

12,618 4275 34% 3143 25% 156 1%

Village Panchayat Ward Members

97458 32638 33% 24630

25% 983 1%

(Note: In the state on Tamil Nadu, a block is also referred to as a Panchayat Union. The terms may be used interchangeably in the report). 5.1 Vision of State PR Department

The vision of the State PR Department is to be the nodal agency to ensure proper delivery of welfare schemes and services to the citizens from the State to the Village Panchayat level through the intermediary stages of District Panchayat and Panchayat Union.



The Principal Secretary, Rural Development envisages Village Panchayats to be the point of convergence of all services / schemes extended by all the line departments.

5.2 Panchayati Raj Organization Structure (Level, Designation) At the core of the economic planning and development process is the focus on the development of the rural areas and ensuing improvement in the quality of life of the rural people. Economic development and progress made in diverse vistas would carry no significant weight if they do not transform in to better and dignified living for the rural population. With the objective of correcting the developmental imbalances, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj is implementing several centrally and State sponsored programs. These programs are aimed at ensuring sustainable development of the rural areas especially, the weaker sections of the society. A number of initiatives have been put in to action and the programmes strengthened with the aim to create social and economic infrastructure in the rural areas and fulfill the basic needs of the rural citizens. The below figure represents the organization structure starting at the Ministry level and extending up to the Village level,



Figure 5.1: Organization structure of the State PR Department and the PRIs

5.2.1. PR Department State Level At the apex of the State PR Department is the Honorable Minister for Rural Development. The Principal Secretary to the Government, supported by two Deputy Secretaries, assists the Honorable Minister in the formulation of various policies at the Government Level. The Directorate of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department, The Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women, the Tsunami Project Implementation Unit and the Vazhndhu Kaatuvom Project are the departments which come under the ambit of this Ministry. The Directorate of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department is represented by The Commissioner of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj and the Commissioner of Rural



Development & Panchayat Raj (Training). The former is assisted by the Additional Commissioner of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj. The below figure is the graphical representation of the organization structure at State level,

Figure 5.2: Organization structure of the State PR Department.

District Level At the District level, the Collector is the Chairman of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). The Project Officer (Development), DRDA assists the District Collector in implementing various development programmes in the district. Each DRDA has an Engineering cell headed by an Executive Engineer. The Personal Assistant- Panchayat Development (PAPD), Assistant Director (Panchayats) and Assistant Director (Audit) assist the Collector in matters concerning the Panchayat Administration. The District level hierarchy is an represented below,

Minister of Rural Development

Principal Secretary to Government

Deputy Secretary to Government

Tsunami Project

Implementation Unit

Deputy Secretary to Government

Vazhndhu Kaatuvom

Unit

Directorate of Rural

Development and Panchayati Raj

Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development

of Women



Figure 5.3 District Level Hierarchy

Block Level At the Block level, there are two Block Development Officers designated as the Block Development Officer (Block Panchayat) and the Block Development Officer (Village Panchayats). The Block Development Officer (Block Panchayat) is also the executive authority i.e. Commissioner of the Panchayat Union Council. The Block Development Officer (Village Panchayats) exclusively looks after the schemes and affairs of the Village Panchayats. In each Block, one Union Engineer and one Assistant Engineer assisted by Overseers are responsible for technical matters relating to the implementation of the works. These Block level Engineers are supervised by the Assistant Executive Engineers.

Project Officer –

DRDA

Assistant Director - Panchayat

PAPD Assistant Director - Audit

District Collector

Executive Engineer



The Block level hierarchy is as represented below,

Figure 5.4 Block Level Hierarchy

Village Level At the Village level, the Block Development Officer (Village Panchayat) oversees functioning of the various Village Panchayats under the Block. The Block development Officer (Village Panchayat) directly interacts with the Panchayat Assistant and Makkal Nalan Paniyalar to obtain daily progress report w.r.t the schemes being implemented by that particular Village. The Panchayat Assistant is in-charge of administrative work at the Village. Book-keeping, records maintenance, accounts maintenance etc., are taken care of by the Panchayat Assistant.

Block Development Officer (Block Panchayat)

Assistant Executive Engineer

Assistant Engineer

Union Engineer

Overseer

Block Development Officer (Village Panchayat)

Assistant Director - Panchayat



Figure 5.5 Village Level Hierarchy

5.2.2. Panchayati Raj Institutions District Panchayat The District Panchayat is headed by the District Panchayat Chairman (DPC) and consists of 41 elected Councilors, each representing around 50,000 people. The DPC is assisted by the Assistant Director, Planning Cell cum Secretary-District Panchayat Committee. S/he is further supported by one Superintendent and one Junior Assistant. Panchayat Union The Panchayat Union is headed by the Panchayat Union Chairman and consists of elected members representing various wards. Each ward covers a few village Panchayats and around 5000 people.



Village Panchayat The Village Panchayat is headed by the Panchayat President and consists of elected ward members. Amongst them, one person is selected as the Vice-President. The Panchayat President is assisted by the Village Assistant, Makka Nala Panialar and support staff.

5.3 Devolution Status In order to ensure that the Panchayat Raj Institutions function as effective institutions of local self-government, the Tamil Nadu government constituted the First High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Thiru. L. C. Jain, the then full-time member of the State Planning Commission in the year 1996. The committee was entrusted with the responsibility for making recommendations on the entrustment of powers and functions to the tiers of the Panchayat. Many recommendations proposed by the committee were put to action and several departments such as Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Forests, Social Welfare, Revenue, Khadi and Village Industries, Education, Health and Family Welfare, Adi-Dravidar Welfare, Co-operation, Food and Consumer Protection issued Government Orders for devolution of powers and functions to the PRIs. In 1997, the government constituted the Second High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Thiru. Ko.Si.Mani, the then Hon’ble Rural Development and Local Administration Minister to recommend more devolution of powers and functions to the Panchayats. The committee made a total of 1209 recommendations of which the government accepted 718 and issued orders for their implementation. In line with its commitment to devolution of powers and responsibilities, the government constituted the Third High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister, Thiru. M.K.Stalin in 2007. This committee made recommendations for further devolution of powers to make the Panchayati Raj Institutions more effective. The important recommendations of this committee are as mentioned below,

• Gram Sabha to act as a forum of Social Audit for all the schemes implemented by various Departments.

• Approval of the list of all individual beneficiary schemes to be done by Gram Sabha. • Conversion of multi-member wards into single member wards in all the Village Panchayats

as is there in the case of the Panchayat Unions and District Panchayats. • Stability of tenure of rural and urban Local Body representatives by making the moving and

passing of No Confidence Motions more stringent.



• Designating November 1st of every year as the ‘Local Bodies Day’. • Empowering weaker Village Panchayats by enhancing their State Finance Commission

grants and allocating the entire Central Finance Commission grants to Village Panchayats so as to enable them to meet the expenditure relating to water supply, electricity charges and sanitation.

• Pooling of assigned revenues of Local Cess, Local Cess Surcharge and Surcharge on Stamp Duty and Entertainment tax at State Level and apportioning it to the districts thereafter.

• Giving Panchayat Raj Institutions greater operational independence by enhancing administrative sanction powers of Village Panchayats, Panchayat Unions and District Panchayats for works taken out of their General Funds.

• Rationalization of Village Panchayat Accounts. • Issue of Identity Cards to the Heads of three tiers of Panchayat and for the Members of

Panchayat Unions and District Panchayats. • Making BDOs (Village Panchayats) as separate Pay Drawing Officers. • Provision of Telephone facility to all Village Panchayats. • Provision of Wireless to Panchayat Unions. • Vehicles for Panchayat Raj Institutions and key functionaries of Rural Development

Department. • Revival of Namakku Naame Thittam. • Formulation of Panchayat Union School Renovation Programme. • Setting up of Libraries and Sports Centers in all Panchayats under AGAMT (State scheme) • Designating Village Panchayats as ‘Village Level Committee’ for selecting the beneficiaries

and implementing the schemes of various other departments at Village level.

The Government has accepted most of the recommendations and issued necessary orders regarding the same. As the devolution of the State Finance Commission grant was linked to the population of the Village Panchayats, smaller villages received lesser grants as compared to those with large population. The needs of the Panchayats are directly proportional to the size of the population. However, irrespective of the size of the population, there are certain fixed costs associated with the running of the Village Panchayats. As a result, there were instances where some of the smaller Village Panchayats found it difficult to pay the Electricity Bills and wages of the staff on time. In order to reduce this disparity and ensure self-sustainability of the smaller villages, the government passed a GO (G.O.Ms.No.199 Finance, dated 25.5.2007) wherein a floor amount of Rs. 3 lakh was earmarked for each village irrespective of the population. Only after the apportionment of this



amount, the remaining funds are distributed among the Village Panchayats in proportion to their population. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) introduced and implemented the Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS) in 2005-06. The scheme aims at encouraging the States for adequately empowering the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and putting in place arrangements for bringing about accountability of the PRIs. Performance of the States in these respects is measured through a Devolution Index (DI).

The indicators for the DI aim at assessing the state of devolution in respect of the 3Fs, namely, Functions, Finances and Functionaries by the respective States to the PRIs. Finances include parameters related to the maintenance of appropriate accounts, expenditure details and audits of those accounts. Tamil Nadu has secured 3rd position in the rankings list for the latest year (2008-09). The state has been consistent over the years. It was ranked 1st in the last year’s rankings and 4th in the year previous to that. 5.3.1. Funds The Rural Local Bodies execute the duties of providing basic amenities and civic services to the rural population. In order to undertake activities related to the same, they raise funds through tax collection and other sources of revenue. However, the funds so collected are not sufficient. The Central as well as the State Governments devolve part of their own tax revenues to help them meet their requirements. The State Government, through a GO (G.O. (Ms.) No. 199, Finance (FC IV) Department, dated 25.5.2007), ordered that the devolution of funds to the Local Bodies from the State’s Own Tax Revenue will be at 9%. The rural local bodies receive 58% of this share while the urban bodies receive 42% share. Further, the allocation of the rural local bodies is in the ratio of 60:32:8 among the Village Panchayats, Panchayat Union Councils and District Panchayats. This division is done based on two factors:

• The Village Panchayats are large in number. • The Village Panchayats are entrusted with most of the basic functions such as maintenance

of village roads and streets, drinking water supply, sanitation, street lights and solid waste management.

Central Finance Commission Grant



On the basis of the recommendations of the Twelfth Finance Commission, a total sum of Rs. 870 crores has been allotted to the State for the rural local bodies for the period from 2005-06 to 2009-10. A sum of Rs.174 crores was released to Village Panchayats and Panchayat Unions in the ratio of 80: 20 respectively in the year 2005-06. From 2006-07 onwards, the entire grant is being released only to the Village Panchayats. This grant is meant to be utilized entirely for the operations and maintenance costs of water supply, street lighting and sanitation. The below table gives the breakdown of the funds released so far till 2007-08,

Table 5.2: Twelfth Central Finance Commission Grant

Twelfth Central Finance Commission Grant ( in Rs. Crores)

Year Panchayat Unions Village Panchayats Total

2005-06 34.80 139.20 174.00 2006-07 17.40 156.60 174.00 2007-08 0.00 174.00 174.00

Total 52.20 469.80 522.00 State Finance Commission The third State Finance Commission was commissioned for the period 2007-2008 to 2011-2012. The key recommendations of this Commission are as given below,

• The devolution of funds for Local Bodies shall be 10% of the States’ Own Tax Revenue. • The vertical sharing of devolution between rural Local Bodies and urban Local Bodies

should be in ratio of 58:42 respectively. • The horizontal sharing of devolution among Panchayat Raj Institutions to be in the ratio of

8:32:60 for District Panchayat, Panchayat Unions and Village Panchayats respectively. • 3% out of Village Panchayat share should be set apart as Incentive Fund for Village

Panchayats. • All educational institutions including State Government Owned and Government aided

buildings, except Elementary Education Schools, should be subjected to levy of House Tax. • The power to levy and collect Cable TV tax be vested with the Local Bodies. • The tax collecting machinery in Village Panchayats should be strengthened by involving

Makkal Nala Paniyalargal and also allocating work among the Village Panchayat Assistants who have been brought under time scale.



• Social Audit may be conducted in Village Panchayats using the Grama Sabha as the forum for the above.

• The issuance of birth and death certificates be entrusted with the Village Panchayats. The table below gives the break-up of the funds among the three tiers for the period 2007-08,

Table 5.3: Third State Finance Commission Grant

Third State Finance Commission Grant ( in Rs. Crores)

Year Village Panchayats Panchayat Unions District Panchayats

Total

2007-08 950.15 506.75 126.69 1583.59 Pooling of Assigned Revenues The major sources of assigned/shared revenues to the rural Local Bodies are Local Cess, Local Cess Surcharge, Surcharge on Stamp duty, Entertainment tax, Seigniorage fee, lease amount of mines and minerals and sale proceeds of Social Forestry plantations. The total receipt to rural Local Bodies under these heads in a year is about Rs.250-300 crores.

• The Local Cess is equal to the land revenue collected and is credited to the Village Panchayats.

• The Local Cess Surcharge is credited to the Panchayat Unions. • The surcharge on stamp duty is apportioned among the Village Panchayats in the Block in

proportion to their land revenue collection. • The entertainment tax is shared between the Village Panchayats and Panchayat Union in

the ratio 70:30, after deducting 10% towards collection expenses. • The Seigniorage fee on minor minerals is credited to the Village Panchayats concerned

while in the case of the lease amount, 50% is credited to the Panchayat Union and 50% to the Village Panchayats concerned.

• In the case of social forestry auction amounts, 60% of the gross proceeds are credited to the Village Panchayats concerned and 40% is retained by the Forest department.

In order to overcome the delays in adjusting the various assigned/shared revenues to the Village Panchayats and Panchayat Unions and to reduce the disproportionate paper work and the inequities in the distribution, the government, through a GO (GO G.O.Ms.No.168 R.D. & P.R. Dept.



dt.4.10.2007) ordered the pooling at the State level and apportionment of the above revenues to the rural Local Bodies thereafter. Village Panchayat Among the three tiers, the Village Panchayat alone has the power to levy taxes. The important sources of revenue for the Village Panchayat are as tabulated below,

Table 5.4: Sources of revenue for the Village Panchayat

Type

Details

Tax Revenues House tax, Profession tax and Advertisement tax are the

commonly levied taxes.

Non-Tax Revenues

Licensing fees for building plan and layout approval, fees and

charges on Dangerous & Offensive trades, water charges, fees on

cart-stands, fishery rentals, 2C Patta fees (Fees to be paid if you

are making use of government property to gain income such as

selling fruits of a government-owned Mango tree in front of your

house), income from markets and fairs, ferries, fines and penalties.

Assigned and Shared Revenues

These revenues include the items pooled at the State level (Local

Cess, Local Cess Surcharge, Surcharge on Stamp duty and

Entertainment Tax) which are released by the Director of Rural

Development and Panchayat Raj to all the three tiers of the

Panchayats including the Village Panchayats.

Other items of assigned and shared revenues for the Village

Panchayats include the Seigniorage fees (100%) and lease

amount (50% share) on minor minerals and social forestry auctions

amount.

Grants

Central Finance Commission Grant, State Finance Commission

Grant and development grants under Centrally-sponsored and

State schemes.



Panchayat Union The sources of revenues for the Panchayat Union are as tabulated below,

Table 5.5: Sources of revenue for the Panchayat Union

Type

Details

Non-Tax Revenue License fees, market fees, receipt from rentals and properties, fines

and penalties.

Assigned and Shared Revenues

The Pooled Assigned Revenue component of Local Cess, Local Cess

Surcharge, Surcharge on Stamp Duty and Entertainment Tax is

proportionately distributed to the Panchayat Unions based on the

State Finance Commission Grants formula. Lease amount of mines

and minerals (50% share) comes individually to the Panchayat Unions

concerned and is adjusted at the district level itself.

Grants State Finance Commission Grants, development grants under

Centrally sponsored schemes and State schemes, grants for maternity

centres and rural dispensaries.



District Panchayat The District Panchayat has no taxation powers. Its only source of revenue is from statutory grants like State Finance Commission Grant and development grants under Centrally Sponsored Schemes. As per the recommendation of the Thiru. M.K. Stalin Committee, the Panchayats can obtain loans for undertaking works and rendering services. Also, the recommendation of inter-Panchayat facility to be enabled has also been accepted. The PRIs receive funds through sources such as Tax Collections (Village Panchayats only), Non-tax revenues, Grants from Central and state Finance Commission and Assigned Revenues. For the financial year (2008-09), the PRIs in Tamil Nadu received a sum of Rs. 125.36 Crores in Tax, Rs. 102.36 Crores in Non-tax, Rs. 277.6 Crores from Central Finance Commission Grant, Rs. 1,716.44 Crores from State Finance Commission Grants and Rs. 615.34 Crores from Assigned Revenues. From the state budget, Rs. 5665.05 Crores has been provided to the PR department for the period 2009-10. Budget Preparation April- March is the financial cycle in the state. Budget preparation for the 3 levels of PRIs District, Block and Village starts in the month of November. The PRIs prepare budgets based on Revised Estimates and Budget Estimates.

• Revised Estimates – Includes the actual expenditures/receipts incurred from April to October of the current year along with estimated expenditure/receipts from November to March of the current year.

• Budget Estimates – Includes the expected expenditure/receipts for the next fiscal year (April to March). The Budget Estimate is usually 10- 15% greater than the Revised Estimate.

At the Village Panchayat, the Panchayat President prepares the budget and the Deputy BDO Audit scrutinizes the budget. After scrutiny and incorporation of changes the Deputy BDO Audit submits the budget to the AD-Panchayat for review. After review and incorporation of changes suggested the AD-Panchayat then forwards the budget to Collector for his approval. At the Panchayat Union, the Panchayat Union Chairman prepares the budget and the BDO (Block Panchayat) scrutinizes the budget. After scrutiny and incorporation of changes the BDO (Block Panchayat) submits the budget to the AD-Panchayat for review. After review and incorporation of changes suggested the AD-Panchayat then forwards the budget to Collector for his approval.



At the District Panchayat, the District Chairman prepares the budget and the District Secretary scrutinizes the budget. After scrutiny and incorporation of changes the District Secretary submits the budget to the Collector for review and approval. The Personal Assistant to Collector – Panchayat Development (PAPD) performs reviews of budgets on behalf of the Collector for the budgets prepared by the PRIs. However, the Collector is the final approving authority. 5.3.2. Functions Of the 29 subjects to be devolved to the Panchayats, it is observed that only 21 of them are being implemented by the Panchayats. The below table gives the current status of the devolution of the various functions,

Table 5.6: Devolution status of the 29 subjects

S. No.

Name of the Function

Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

1 Agriculture Yes Policy Note of

Watershed

Agency

As per the Hariyali

guidelines the

responsibility of

implementation has

shifted from the line

departments to the

Village Panchayats. The

user groups identify the

works and execute them

through Village

Panchayats.

2 Land improvement,

implementation of

land reforms, land

consolidation and

soil conservation

No



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

3 Minor irrigation,

water management

and watershed

development

Yes Policy Note of

Watershed

Agency

As per the Hariyali

guidelines the

responsibility of

implementation has

shifted from the line

departments to the

Village Panchayats. The

user groups identify the

works and execute them

through Village

Panchayats.

4 Animal Husbandry,

Dairying and Poultry

No

5 Fisheries Yes G O Ms. No.

61, Animal

Husbandry,

Dairying and

Fisheries

With respect to this GO,

Rs. 74,76,000/- has been

sanctioned to establish a

model village for

fishermen. The

construction shall be

executed through the

Panchayat unions under

the direct supervision of

the concerned District

Collectors.

6 Social Forests and

Farm Forestry

Yes Citizen

Charter,

Forests

Department

In case of lands within

the jurisdiction of the

Panchayats, the approval

of the concerned



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

Panchayat is obtained

7 Minor Forest

Produce

No

8 Small scale

industries, including

food processing

industries

Yes G.O.Ms. 66,

Small

Industries

Department,

1999

Devolution of more

powers, functions and

responsibilities to the

rural local bodies

suggested by State

Planning Commission

relating to Small

Industries including food

processing.

9 Khadi, Village and

Cotton Industries

No

10 Rural Housing Yes Policy Note,

Rural

Development

District Panchayat plans

and reviews rural

housing programmes,

particularly for SC/STs

11 Drinking Water Yes Policy Note,

Rural

Development

Panchayat Union is

involved in construction

of water works for the

supply of water for

drinking purpose

12 Fuel and Fodder No

13 Roads, culverts,

bridges, ferries,

Yes Policy Note,

Rural

Both Panchayats and

Panchayat Unions are



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

waterways and

other means of

communication.

Development involved in construction,

repair and maintenance

of roads that come under

their purview (E.g. CC

roads for Panchayat

president)

14 Rural electrification,

including

distribution of

electricity

Yes Policy Note,

Rural

Development

As per the policy note the

responsibility for

electrification has shifted

to the Village Panchayat.

They are responsible for

rural electrification

including distribution of

electricity and payment

of dues. 70% of the

income of Village

Panchayats is spent on

payment of electricity

charges.

15 Non-conventional

Energy Sources

Yes Policy Note,

Electricity

Board

All the levels of PRIs are

involved in identification

of beneficiaries and sites

for installing windmills

and solar panels. They

are also involved in

promoting awareness

about non-conventional

energy sources.



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

16 Poverty Alleviation

Program

Yes G.O.Ms.No.14

2, Rural

Development,

Vaazhndhu

Kaatuvom

Project

Village Panchayats

implement activities

under Village Poverty

Reduction Committee

(VPRC) Fund

17 Education, including

primary and

secondary schools.

Yes 1)

G.O.Ms.No.64,

Rural

Development

2) G.O.Ms. 88,

School

Education

1) This is w.r.t renovation

of Panchayat Union

schools under AGAMT

scheme. Panchayat

Union and Village

Panchayat Presidents

play a role in the

identification of schools

for repairs and

maintenance.

2) Panchayat Union

members also monitor

functioning of high

schools.

18 Technical training

and vocational

education

No

19 Adult and non-

formal education

No

20 Libraries Yes G.O. (Ms) No.

177, Rural

As per the guidelines, the

library should be kept



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

Development open for a minimum 7

hours daily. In case of

unavailability of Praeraks

and Assistant Praeraks,

the Panchayat Clerk /

Panchayat Assistant /

Makkal Nala Paniyalar is

entrusted with this

responsibility.

Village Panchayat

President selects people

with required

qualification, age and

nativity. After panel

selection, he forwards

the three eligible names

in the order of priority

with the resolution of the

Village Panchayats for

Collector’s approval.

21 Cultural Activities Yes G.O.Ms.No.14

5, Rural

Development

22 Markets and Fairs Yes G.O.Ms.No.14

5, Rural

Development

The responsibilities

entrusted to Village

Panchayats include

maintenance of the list of

fairs and festivals

pertaining to their

jurisdiction, classification,

revised classification and

consultation wherein they

can raise their issues



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

and opinions.

23 Health and

sanitation, including

hospitals, primary

health centres and

dispensaries.

Yes

24 Family Welfare Yes

G.O. (Ms) No.

60, Health and

Family Welfare

There exists a Panchayat

Welfare Society

comprising the people’s

representatives, health

officials, local district

officials,

representatives of the

Indian Medical

Association,

members of urban local

bodies and Panchayat

Raj representatives as

well as leading

donors to ensure safety

and protection of people.

25 Women and Child

Development

Yes Policy Note,

Social Welfare

and Nutritious

Meal

Programme

To tackle the issue of

women and child

trafficking, apart from

committees at State,

district and block level,

there are village level

committees under the

Chairpersonship of

Village Panchayat

Presidents to address

the problems at micro



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

level.

26 Social welfare,

including welfare of

the handicapped

and mentally

retarded

No

27 Welfare of the

weaker sections,

and in particular, of

the Scheduled

Castes and the

Scheduled Tribes

Yes G.O.Ms. No.

148, Tribal

Welfare

Panchayat Presidents

recommend SC/ST

beneficiaries for free land

and monitor rehabilitation

of freed bonded

labourers

28 Public distribution

System

Yes 1) Rc. No.

C1/12310/2001

, Dt. 10.1.2002,

Civil Supplies

and Consumer

Protection

Department

2) G.O.Ms. No.

4, Civil

Supplies and

Consumer

Protection

Department

Village Panchayat may

run fair price shops after

collector’s approval

29 Maintenance of

Community Assets

Yes 1) G.O. (Ms)

No. 241, Rural

Development,

Panchayats have been

entrusted with the

responsibility of



S. No.


Devolution

Status

Reference Remarks

Policy Note,

Rural

Development

2) Citizen

Charter, Rural

Development,

maintaining community

assets such as street

lights, water supply in

local bodies etc.

The above table indicates that so far 21 subjects have been devolved and 8 others are yet to be devolved. Devolution of these subjects at Panchayat Union and District Panchayat level has been limited as they play a voluntary role in monitoring the activities related to these subjects. Some of the challenges encountered in devolving functions are as mentioned below,

• Lack of adequate involvement of elected representatives • Lack of adequate competence of elected representatives • Lack of adequate manpower • Lack of adequate training and capacity building activities

The TN Panchayat Act 1994 prescribes the duties and functions of all the three tiers of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. These functions across the individual tiers are covered in the following sections. Village Panchayat Functions and Administrative powers Sections 110 & 111 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994 prescribe the duties and functions of the Village Panchayats. The functions are as follows: Functions

• Construction, repair and maintenance of all village roads. • Extension of village sites and the regulation of buildings.



• Lighting of public roads and public places in built-up areas. • Construction of drains. • Cleaning of streets and improvement of the sanitary condition of the village. • Construction and maintenance of public latrines. • Sinking and repairing of wells, the excavation, repair and maintenance of ponds or tanks

and the construction and maintenance of water-works for the supply of water. • Maintenance of burial and burning grounds. • Maintenance of parks and reading rooms. • Implementation of schemes such as (IAY) and (NREGS).

Such other duties as the Government may, by notification, impose. Administrative powers

• Village Panchayat President himself is the designated Executive Authority and cheques for payment need to be signed jointly by him and the Vice-President.

• The Village Panchayats are empowered to give administrative sanction and execute individual works up to Rs.2 lakhs from their General Funds.

• Panchayats have also been given freedom to execute urgent works up to Rs. 2,000 at a time and up to Rs. 5,000 for a year without any technical approval.

• The President can draw self cheque up to Rs. 500 to meet contingent expenditures. • The Village Panchayats have been given necessary delegation of powers to enable them to

attend to repairs and maintenance of hand pumps, power pumps and street lights promptly. They can spend Rs.600 per hand pump per year and up to Rs.7,500 per power pump per year without reference to engineers for preparation of estimates or approval of bills.

• They can buy street light materials meeting the prescribed quality norms on their own. Panchayat Union Section 112 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994 prescribes various powers and functions of Panchayat Union Councils. Functions

• Construction, repair and maintenance of all Panchayat Union roads. • Construction of water works for the supply of water for drinking, washing and bathing

purposes. • Construction and maintenance of elementary and middle schools.



• Control of fairs and festivals under the control of the Panchayat Union. • Opening and maintenance of Panchayat Union public markets. • Implementing various Centrally sponsored and State schemes. • Preventive and remedial measures connected with any epidemic or with malaria.

Administrative powers The Panchayat Union Councils are empowered to give administrative sanction and execute individual works up to Rs.10 lakhs from their General Funds without any external approval. District Panchayat Functions The functions of the District Panchayats are mainly advisory in nature such as,

• Preparation of development plan for the district. • Compilation of administration reports of Village Panchayats and Panchayat Union Councils

and preparation of Annual Report for the district. • Planning and review of Agriculture, Land Development, Animal Husbandry, Dairy, Poultry,

Fisheries and Rural Industries etc. • Planning and review of rural housing program, particularly housing for SC/STs. • Identification of major water supply schemes.

Administrative powers The District Panchayats are empowered to give administrative sanction and execute individual works up to Rs.20 lakhs from their General Funds without any external approval. 5.3.3. Functionaries The PRIs play an important role in the planning, implementation and monitoring of development programs. The PRIs are significantly assisted by the functionaries and officials of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department and another category of functionaries that includes Bankers, NGOs, SHGs and SHG Federations at the Panchayat level.



The Village President is assisted by a Village Panchayat Assistant, who is appointed on a fulltime basis in regular scale of pay. The State government has also appointed one Makkal Nala Paniyalargal (People’s Welfare Worker) per village to assist the Village Panchayat President. During study it was observed that the line departments including Rural Development function as autonomous bodies. Unlike the previous 2 tier system in Tamil Nadu wherein the Rural Development Department was the umbrella department under which all the other line departments functioned is no longer in vogue. As per the current 3 tier system, each line departments has its own officials working at the district, block and village level. They have their own workflow mechanism without the involvement of the RD department. At the district, each line department has its own office located at the Collectorate. At the Block level, Extension officers from the Line departments are stationed at the Block Development Office. At the Village level, the line departments have field officers to perform inspection and monitoring. The PRIs (elected representatives) have limited / no role in planning, monitoring and implementation of schemes proposed by the other line departments. As per the L.C. Jain Committee (the first high level planning committee constituted in 1996), apart from the Rural Development department, other departments such as Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Forests, Social Welfare, Revenue, Khadi and Village Industries, Education, Health and Family Welfare, Adi-Dravidar Welfare, Co-operation, Food and Consumer Protection, have issued GOs that clearly outlines the role of PRIs w.r.t the services/ schemes executed by them. The PRIs have their presence felt in the standing committees present at the district, block and village level. The committees are involved in planning and monitoring the progress of the work executed by the respective line departments. (Refer Section 5.4.4) 5.3.4. Activity Mapping Activity mapping has not been done so far in Tamil Nadu. However, the State government asserts that powers have been devolved to the grassroots level and funds, functions and functionaries have been identified clearly for all the three tiers of Panchayats. Appropriate GOs covering the various subjects with definition of roles and responsibilities of all the three tiers have been released. According to the Rural Development department, since the various functions for District Panchayat, Panchayat Union and Village Panchayat are clearly outlined in the Government Orders (GOs) and are available on the internet as well, Activity Mapping becomes a redundant activity.



As regards the various line departments, they have their own service delivery mechanism and field officers to perform the task at the village level. Since no involvement of the Panchayati Raj Institutions is sought while delivering services to the citizens, the exercise of Activity Mapping involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions has not yet been undertaken. Although several GOs have been released, the Village Panchayat is not involved in all the schemes and the Panchayat Union and District Panchayat perform mostly the role of monitoring the activities. The Village Panchayat is actively involved in the selection of beneficiaries and monitoring the progress of two major schemes, namely NREGS and IAY. 5.3.5. Challenges Challenges are encountered in the effective functioning of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. These are as enumerated below,

• All the three PRIs do not have adequate information on the details of the schemes and services, the infrastructure in existence, the gaps in infrastructure, the needs of the people and the resources required to bridge the gaps.

• There is no involvement of District Panchayat and Panchayat Union in the Village Panchayat Planning Process.

• When works span across multiple departments, there is no well defined single-point responsibility in the Central/State/Local government for execution of schemes and delivery of services.

• There is no strict adherence to timelines or SLAs. • The Engineering wing at the block runs on low staff strength and is finding it difficult to

handle NREGS and other schemes. • There is inadequate awareness about the various schemes and initiatives among the

common citizens.

5.4 PR Governance The involvement of different tiers of PRIs varies for various Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). The role could involve planning, implementation, monitoring and accounting. Our observations on role of PRIs in various CSS were based on interaction with various line departments at district and block levels and with the elected representatives across the 3 tiers. Feedback elicited from the District Workshop has also been incorporated in our findings on the role of PRIs in various CSS. The following table captures their involvement in the 17 CSS studied by the team,



Table 5.7: List of Centrally Sponsored Schemes studied by the team

S. No Scheme

Abbreviation

Scheme Name

1 TSC Total Sanitation Campaign

2 NREGS

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

The scheme is customized for the State and is referred usually

to as TNREGS for official purposes. In this report, however, we

shall refer TNREGS as NREGS.

3 IAY Indira Awaz Yojana

4 MPLADS Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme

5 BRGF Backward Region Grant Fund

6 SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan

7 IGNOAPS Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme

8 RKVY Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana

9 NHM National Horticulture Mission

10 IWDP Integrated Wasteland Development Programme

11 NRHM National Rural Health Mission

12 ARWSP Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme

13 NLRMP National Rural Land Records Management Programme

14 RMSA Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Yojana

15 NFSM National Food Security Mission

16 Scholarships Scholarships, Hostels, Coaching for Weaker Sections

17 Noon Meals Mid-day Meals Programme



The role of the Panchayati Raj Institutions w.r.t CSS is as depicted in the below table,

Table 5.8: Involvement of the PRIs in various Centrally Sponsored Schemes

Scheme

Three Tiers of Panchayat

Village Panchayat Panchayat Union District Panchayat

TSC

NREGS

IAY

MPLADS

BRGF

SSA

IGNOAPS

RKVY

NHM

IWDP

NRHM

ARWSP

NLRMP

Mid Day Meals

RMSA

Scholarships

NFSM

Legend: 5.4.1. G2G Functional Areas 5.4.1.1 Planning

Full Involvement of PRI Partial Involvement of PRI No Involvement of PRI



Government Orders are released as applicable to all the three tiers elaborating on the workflow (planning, proposal making and approval) with respect to the various schemes and services. Planning happens from bottom to top. Village plan becomes a part of the block plan and the block plan becomes a part of the district plan. There are also instances of inter – block and inter- Panchayat planning. The Village Panchayat prepares the plan for general Panchayat fund towards the upkeep of the Panchayat like street lights, water, electricity, Over Head Tank (OHT), motor maintenance, purchasing disinfectants etc. They take in to consideration the previous year's actuals and the current year's development activities to evolve the current year's budget. The Village Panchayat has monthly meeting for reviews of schemes and services. In addition, special groups are formed for Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Anganwadis and Noon-meals. District Panchayat selects five services every quarter on a rotational basis for review of schemes with the concerned line departments. The Block Panchayat reviews all expenses on a quarterly basis. Apart from these, they also review schemes regularly. The following table gives details about the role of PRIs in the planning process for different schemes,

Table 5.9: Role of PRIs in Planning

Planning

IAY • The list of beneficiaries is selected by the PRI. • The beneficiary list is prepared by the Village Panchayat President

based on the BPL list • It is placed in the Grama Sabha for approval. Any additions

deletions are done there. • The final list is prepared. • 60:40 ratio has to be assigned to SC/ST and other communities. • The list is then sent to the block.

TSC

• Beneficiary list is prepared and reviewed in the Grama Sabha. • TSC campaigns are also conducted by the PRI to educate the

public on the need of total sanitation. • The list is sent to the Block for approval and availing of funds.

NREGS The Village Panchayat performs the following: • Preparation and approval of Annual Action Plan.



Planning

• Preparation of prioritized list of works with likely cost/estimate. • Preparation of calendar of program. • The Village Panchayat President shall match the demand of

labour with the employment opportunities. • The Block Program Officer will analyze the Village Panchayat

reports and distribute the works.

SGSY • The BPL list is prepared with respect to the Poverty line criteria set by the state.

• DRDA identifies and initiates the formation of Affinity Groups ( later form SHGs)

• Planning for infrastructure needs of the SHGs will be made in close concert with the banks.

• The proposals for infrastructure development should be drawn up by DRDA in consultation with Bankers and form part of the Annual Plan of the Block and District.

PMGSY • The Rural Roads Plan and the Core Network would constitute the basis for all planning exercises under the PMGSY.

• The Plan would first be prepared at the Block level, in accordance with the directions contained in the Manual and the priorities spelt out by the District Panchayat. In short, the existing road network would be drawn up, unconnected Habitations identified and the roads required to connect these unconnected Habitations prepared. This shall constitute the Block Level Master Plan.

• Then the Core Network for the Block is identified. • The Block level Master Plan and the Core Network are then

placed before the Intermediate Panchayat for consideration and approval of the Core Network. They are simultaneously sent, along with the list of all unconnected Habitations to the Members of Parliament and MLAs, for their comments, if any. After approval by the Intermediate Panchayat, the Plans would be placed before the District Panchayat for its approval.

• Once approved by the District Panchayat, a copy of the Core Network would be sent to the State-level Agency as well as the National Rural Roads Development Agency.

• The length of the proposed roads is estimated and the required



Planning

funds are requested from the concerned ministry.

Note: although according to Govt. orders the above mentioned process has

to be followed for planning in PMGSY, this does not happen in reality. The

requirement for the roads is decided in the Gram Sabha and put across to

the Block office. From here it is sent to the Panchayat union where a

resolution is passed. It is then sent to the PO. After further analysis and

discussions the proposal is sent to the State via the Collector. The actual

plans for the roads are done at the state and the Panchayat institution has

no say in it. Their role is limited to making land available for the construction

of the roads and taking care of encroachments.

BRGF • Plans are prepared by the District and Block Panchayat after resolution from Gram Sabha

• Approved by the local bodies • Then sent to the DRDA for approval and release of funds. • In Tamil Nadu, the funds are divided between the rural and

urban bodies based on the population. DRDA is the nodal agency.

NRHM • District Panchayat: District Health Society consisting of Collector, DD, Health Services, Revenues Member, Secretary and district elected representatives. For work exceeding Rs. 10 lakh, tender is floated through this society.

• Village Panchayat: Village Health Water and Sanitation Committee, Patient Welfare Society consisting of Panchayat President as Chairman, VHN as secretary and representatives of citizen groups such as SHGs. Plans are made for a year based on funds allotted to the society account and reviewed monthly.

IWDP – Watershed

Management

Village Panchayat

• Approval of all land/water use plans for watershed development

through Gram Sabha.



Planning

• Organise appropriate utilisation of community land and other

common properties for development and productive use under

watershed development program.

• Promoting watershed development work in all areas for better

management of natural resources and environment development.

Panchayat Union

• Plan and integrate watershed projects by interacting with Village

Panchayats.

• Organizing people to form User Groups, Work and Watershed

committees.

• To forma a team of technical staff to assist the Village Panchayat

in the implementation of watershed projects

District Panchayat

• Develop land, soil and water resources database for the district

and prepare prospective plans for watershed development.

• Study experiences of other districts in the State/Country in

watershed development and disseminate lessons to the Village

Panchayat and Panchayat Unions.

IWDP- Land Improvement

Village Panchayat

• Draw up comprehensive land and water use plan for the Village Panchayat.

• Identify crops suitable to Panchayat Village ecologies.

• Promote in-situ soil and water conservation techniques in the dry lands and rain fed areas.

Panchayat Union

• Arrange to draw up land and water management plan on the basis



Planning

of Agro-Climatic Regional Planning and Remote Sensing Data.

Promote suitable copping system by organizing crop and land based training programmes in Panchayat Union area.

Challenges Ideally Village-level plans covering the functions devolved to PRIs should be outlined at the Gram Panchayat and these plans must be consolidated by a District Planning Committees (DPC) into a district level plan. This district level plan takes into account the availability of funds from devolution of state plan resources and the earmarked funds flowing from various central schemes. During study it was observed that DPC is not a truly bottom-up initiative. Several plans are decided at the Block / District level and village level stakeholder involvement is not seen up to the desired level. 5.4.1.2. Monitoring and Implementation The Panchayat President is involved in monitoring the implementation of all the schemes executed by him/her at the village. Implementation for NREGS and IAY is carried out by the Village Panchayat in coordination with the Engineering wing at the Block. Implementation of all other schemes is carried out by the line departments in coordination with the BDO and Engineering wing at the Block The below table gives details about the role of PRIs in monitoring and implementation of activities,

Table 5.10: Role of PRIs in Monitoring and Implementation

Monitoring And Implementation

IAY

• The actual implementation is carried out by the beneficiary himself.

• Rs 35,000 are given by the centre to the beneficiary as a part of the scheme. The Tamil Nadu Government hands over an additional Rs 20,000 as roofing cost to the beneficiary.

• The government offers free steel and cement. • The amount remaining after the material cost is handed over to

the beneficiary in the form of a cheque by the Panchayat




President to the beneficiary. The fund is given stage wise in 3 installments.

• Inspection is conducted by the Overseer from the Block office and reports are sent to the District.

TSC

• The implementation of this scheme too is carried out by the beneficiary itself under the supervision of the Village Panchayat and the Block.

• The beneficiary is given the work order after the beneficiary list is approved.

• On completion of the work, the beneficiary is handed over a cheque of Rs 5,500.

• There is a block level coordinator who inspects the work. • The Panchayats are also responsible for building Anganwadi

toilets, school toilets and community sanitation centers. They will act as the custodian of the assets and are responsible for its maintenance and upgrade

• Panchayats play a key role in the monitoring of the TSC program. Both Block level and District level PRIs must regularly monitor the implementation along with the concerned officials.

NREGS • The implementation of this scheme is done by the Village Panchayat. Once the person registers at the Village Panchayat office, verification is done and a job card is issued.

• The selection of site and the scheduling of work is discussed in the Grama Sabha and a resolution is passed.

• The local practice in Dindigul is that the scheduling of work is done in such a way that Agriculture is not affected. The 100 days of work is distributed through out the year during the non-agricultural seasons so that labourers are available for agriculture. Prior to monsoons works such as rain water harvests is taken up.

• The monitoring of the work on a daily basis is done by the Panchayat president and the Makkal Nala Paniyalar. They send daily reports to the Block.

• There is also a weekly inspection done by the AE of the Engineering Wing of the Block Office. Daily and Weekly reports are sent from the Block to the District.




SGSY • The planning and implementation is carried out by SGSY District and Block Committees of the Mahalir Thittam Department and the Bank Officials. The Village Panchayats have no role to play in the implementation and monitoring other than identifying the BPL list.

• SGSY is implemented with the help of NGOs who initiate the formation of Affinity groups and train and monitor them with the along with the BDO.

• Initially a revolving fund is given to the SHG which flows from the Nodal Bank to the Bank Branch where the SHG is present after the Collector’s approval. After six months, economic assistance of 4 lakhs is given to them.

• The BDO and the NGOs conduct frequent inspections of the SHGs. Two reports are submitted by the NGO and the BDO to the District.

• The district report to the state is submitted before the fifth of every month in the form of a hard copy and a CD.

PMGSY • Once the technical sanction has been accorded, tenders are invited. Tender notices are put out on the internet under OMMS.

• Within 15 days of the date of Work Order, signboards along with the Logo of the PMGSY should be erected at the site of road works.

• At the District level, the Program is coordinated, and implemented through a Program Implementation Unit (PIU). All PIUs will be manned by competent technical personnel from amongst the available staff.

• The implementation of the work is done by the contractor who has been assigned the contract.

• The monitoring of this work is done by the EO. The AE and EE conduct regular inspections of the work.

• Expenditure reporting is done on a monthly basis to the DRDA, Commissioner of RD and Secretary.

• There is also a State level monitoring committee comprising of MLAs, MPs etc. The chairperson can be a local MLA or any other Member of the Cabinet.

BRGF • The implementation is done by the DRDA. • They scheme aims to bridge the gap between the developed and




under-developed regions by providing local infrastructure, capacity building for the Panchayats and the Municipalities and provide professional support to the local bodies for planning, implementation and monitoring of the plans. All this is done by the District level committee for the BRGF scheme reporting to the PO and the Collector.

• Monthly and weekly monitoring is done by the DRDA. Expense reports are also sent to the District. An online monitoring mechanism is yet to be developed for BRGF.

SSA • The Village Education Committee (VEC) oversees the implementation of the activities. The committee consists of Panchayat President, Head Master, Education Volunteer, SHG Member and NGO Member.

• Central Government allots funds to the State Government. The state allocates it to the districts on a prorata basis. Districts in turn distribute to blocks on a prorata basis. The blocks provide funds to VEC for constructing school buildings and general maintenance activities. The transfer takes place through Electronic Clearing System (ECS).

NRHM • The Village Health Committee oversees the implementation of the activities. The committee consists of Panchayat President, Village Health Nurse, SHG Member and NGO Member.

• Central Government allots funds to the State Government. The State government in turn allocates to each Health Unit Districts (HUD) based on number of PHCs. The HUD transfers the funds to the Patient Welfare Society which runs the PHCs

Mid Day Meals

• The scheme is monitored by a committee consisting of Panchayat President, School Head Master, Noon-Meal Organizer and SHG Member.

• State allocates the funds to the Centre. Centre allocates funds to the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC). TNCSC delivers rice, dal and cooking oil to the noon meal centers. In addition to that, the government pays Rs. 0.44 for every child availing the benefit of noon meals towards the cost of vegetables and firewood.




IWDP – Watershed

Management

Village Panchayat

• Assist in supervising and monitoring quality of watershed works.

Panchayat Union

• Monitoring, supervision and review of the progress of all the watershed projects.

District Panchayat

• Review and monitor the programme of watershed development programmes in the district.

IWDP – Land Improvement

Village Panchayat

• Arrange soil health cards for the department for all the cultivable lands in the village.

Panchayat Union

• Organize institutional linkages for the Village Panchayats to get soil health cards.

• Organising training for the farmers in the latest soil and water conservation and land improvement technologies.

With respect to monitoring of funds delivered till the lowest level, the Deputy BDO, BDO and AD, Panchayat are authorized to audit the Panchayat Accounts. They inspect the accounts registers every month for expenditure and receipt vouchers. As a part of the monitoring function of the District there are two progress reports that are prepared by the DRDA on a monthly basis. These are,

1 Twenty point programme 2 Plan Scheme Progress Report



Twenty Point Program This is a monthly progress report that contains the Annual targets for each scheme and the achievement of the scheme on a monthly basis. It deals with fiscal numbers. The twenty point program has the following heads,

• Item Name (Name of the scheme) • Units ( No of days/ persons/rupees/hectares depending on the scheme) • Annual Targets • Achievement (in previous and current month)

The Twenty point programme is prepared by the PAPD, DRDA and forwarded to the State every month. This is a comprehensive report of the functioning of various schemes at the district. Plan Scheme Progress Report The Plan Scheme Progress is an expenditure report for the various programmes under each line department. It is forwarded by the DRDA to the State on a monthly basis to review the performance of these programmes. It has the following heads:

• Program • Annual Outlay (in Lakh Rupees) • Achievement (in previous month, during the month, end of the month)

Challenges The engineering wing at the block assists the Panchayat officials at the Block and Village level to monitor the progress of work. On interaction with the Engineers at the Block it was observed that the engineering wing runs on low staff. The engineering wing expressed their concern that for the body of works (spanning across multiple schemes and multiple Village Panchayats) required to be monitored, they lack sufficient manpower. 5.4.1.3 Accounting Prescribed Acts and Guidelines are available for the three tiers of the Panchayat. These are common to all the three levels. However, no 'Codes of Classification' has been adopted yet. At the Village Panchayat level, the Heads of Accounts are as follows,



1 Village Panchayat 2 EB and TWAD/Collector Account 3 Schemes Account 4 NREGS

At the Panchayat Union Block Level, there are 10 Local Fund Accounts. Each has different Heads under it,

• 1 – Panchayat Union Fund • 2 – Village Panchayat (Deleted) • 3 – Educational Fund • 4 – Self Sufficient Scheme (Deleted) • 5 – Noon Meal • 6,7, 8 – Deleted • 9 – NABARD, • 10 – MLACDS, AGAMT

The accounts for NREGS and PMGSY are maintained separately. The below table gives details about the Accounting aspect,

Table 5.11: Accounting details with reference to CSS

Accounting

SSA Funds do not form a part of Panchayat account. A separate account is operated by

the Village Education Committee (VEC). Head Master and Panchayat President are

joint signatories.

NRHM

Funds do not form a part of Panchayat account. A separate account is maintained for

Patient Welfare Society with joint signatories as Panchayat President and Village

Health Nurse

ICDS Funds do not form a part of Panchayat account.

NREGS Funds do not form a part of Panchayat account. There is a separate account for NREGS maintained at the Village Panchayat



The Accounting system adopted is Single Entry Cash Basis. In the past NREGS accounts were being maintained by externally appointed human resources. They demanded their appointment on government rolls, which was not approved. Hence, their appointments were terminated and accounts are at present being maintained by the PRI officials / elected members at the Village Panchayat. The Deputy BDO, BDO and AD, Panchayat are authorized to audit the Panchayat Accounts. They inspect the accounts registers every month for expenditure and receipt vouchers. There are two important documents used in the Accounting practice. One of them is Form 31, a document which records the budget that is prepared by the Panchayat Clerk. The second is Form 30 which is the monthly accounting statement of income and expenditure. Both the forms are submitted to the BDO and forwarded to the AD, Panchayat for approvals/records. The Panchayats are currently not using any accounting software. 5.4.2. Participation in Committees As per TN Panchayat Act 1994 various committees are formed at the District Panchayat, Panchayat Union and Village Panchayat levels with the purpose of assisting the Panchayat bodies in exercising their powers and discharging their duties. As per the law, Committees that need to be present at all the three levels are as follows At District Panchayat

• Food and Agriculture • Industries and labour • Public works • Education • Health and welfare including prohibition



At Panchayat Union

• Appointment • Agricultural production • Education and general purpose (decided by the council)

At Village Panchayat

• Appointment • Development • Agriculture and watershed • Works • Education

More committees can be formed at the Village, Block and District level based on the needs. Similarity between Dindigul and Villupuram Although Committees are present at all three levels in both the district, their frequency of meetings and efficiency of operation varies between Panchayats within the same district itself. Dissimilarity between Dindigul and Villupuram Dindigul district has committees at all the 3 tiers as per the above list. Whereas at Villupuram, the following committees were found to be functional, At District Panchayat

• Forests • Khadi • Education (for SSA) • Health – District Welfare Society • Noon Meal – District Noon Meal Program Committee • TWAD - District Water Supply and Sewerage Committee (DWSSC)



At Panchayat Union

• Education (for SSA) • Health – Block Welfare Society • Noon Meals – Block Noon Meal Program Committee

At Village Panchayat

• Forests – Village Forest Committee • Education – Village Education Committee • Health – Patient Welfare Society • ICDS – Village Level Management Committee • PWD – Water Users Association • Rural Development – Village Payment Committee for NREGS payments • TWAD - Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committee (VWSSC)

Challenges Committees have not been formed in areas such PDS, Library and Electricity to name a few. Several line departments have their own service delivery mechanism and field officers to perform the task at the village level. They do not interact with or involve the PRI / RD department for their service delivery.

5.5 Best Practices & Key Learning related to Panchayati Raj Governance Some of the best practices adopted for increased effectiveness of the Panchayati Raj Institutions are as mentioned below,

• Nirmal Puraskar awards been given to well performing Village Panchayats. • Mahatma Gandhi award given to well performing Panchayat Presidents. • The award winners are allowed share their experiences and conduct session at SIRD /RIRD

in order to motivate and guide other Panchayat Presidents. • Payment of NREGS wages through ECS facility in case the workers are not present

physically to collect their wages. • eTAX solution for tax payment being developed and successfully implemented by one

Village Panchayat with the help of a local Engineering college.



• Realignment / swapping of departments within PR for easier governance by the Principal Secretary. For instance, Magalir Thittam was initially under the Social Welfare department. However, women who wanted to avail loans under this scheme had to approach both RD and Social Welfare departments thereby making it a lengthy process. In order to remove this bottleneck, Magalir Thittam was swapped with nutritious meal program of RD Department.

• Cash basis accounting method is practiced in the state of Tamil Nadu as it is simple, inexpensive and also gives an accurate representation of the cash flow.

• Training Corpus funds of Rs 3 Crores has be allocated every year for organizing training programs to elected representatives on Panchayati Raj administration and Rural Development Schemes.

• Identity Cards for SHGs – this initiative has provided recognition to SHGs and also allows them easy access to government offices and banks.

• Award for Commercial and Industrial Establishments functioning with Social Responsibility - To motivate and encourage the Commercial and Industrial establishments which show exemplary attitude towards discharging their Corporate Social Responsibility

One of the observations of the study is the absence of the organic linkage

between the three tiers of the PRIs. There is also a lack of adequate manpower

and technical skills at each level of the PRI to extend the desired functions and

services. On interaction with the Engineers at the Block office, it was observed

that the engineering wing at the block runs on low staff

The role of PRIs varies with different central schemes. In schemes such as

NREGS, the Village Panchayats are involved in planning, implementing and

monitoring whereas in schemes such as ICDS, the Panchayat President is part of

the monitoring committee which oversees smooth functioning of the

Anganwadis. However, there is not much involvement of District Panchayat and

Panchayat Union in the Village Panchayat Planning Process. There is absence of

synergy across the three tiers.

The PRIs face the challenge of inadequate information about the details of the

schemes and services. Also, there is inadequate awareness about the various

schemes and initiatives among the rural citizens.

Conclusion



Objective: This section covers in depth assessment of information and service needs of state PR department, line departments, PRI and citizens. The expectations of various stakeholders from ePRI project, identified on basis of interactions with various stakeholders at state and district level, have also been discussed.

6 INFORMATION AND SERVICE NEEDS

With the objective of eliciting the Information and Services Need of the various stakeholders viz. State PR Department, line departments, Panchayati Raj Institutions members and citizens, end user consultation was carried out with the representatives of the above groups.

The State workshop could not be conducted as the stakeholders were occupied with the assembly session

overlapping the ePRI state study phase. However, the team met the Rural Development and few other line departments to collect information and service needs requirements. Thereafter, the team visited all the three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions to capture inputs from the elected representatives. A district level workshop was conducted on July 30, 2009 at Villupuram. The workshop was attended by the Acting Collector, government officials as well as elected representatives up to the Block Level. The workshop served as an important medium for capturing the inputs about information and services need. The team visited the identified villages and met the elected representatives at the Gram Panchayat level. At Villupuram on the team’s request, a Special Gram Sabha was convened on August 4, 2009. Through the Gram Sabha, the team interacted with the local citizens to acquire their information and service needs. At Dindigul, the team accompanied the AD – Panchayat and PO- DRDA to attend a Gram Sabha convened on the July 29, 2009 at Nagampatti Village. The team got the opportunity to interact with the ward members, Panchayat President and citizens to capture their information and service needs. The detailed list of the various stakeholders that the team met during the course of the study is provided as Annexure in the Interviewee List Section.



6.1 Information Needs of State PR Department and other line departments

Through our interactions with the officials in the State PR department and other line departments, we found that lack of adequate automation/computerization of the workflow processes and shortage of manpower resources at the block and village are the major bottlenecks for delivering effective citizen-centric services. Another major challenge is the lack of adequate awareness among the elected members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions as well as the citizens with respect to the various schemes and services rendered by the departments. The below table captures the challenges faced by the line departments and their expectations from ePRI.

Table 6.1: Information Needs of the State PR Department and line departments

Stakeholder

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

Rural Development Department

• Lack of adequate

awareness among local

body elected officials

about functions like

agriculture, animal

husbandry, IT, to name

a few

• Lack of transparency in

fund flow

• Lack of centralized

database that lists the

schemes under which an

individual has obtained

benefits.

• Some people avail

multiple benefits under

various schemes, while

several others are

deprived of the benefits

entitled to them

• Centralized database that tracks

the details of individuals, the

benefits they are eligible for and

the benefits they have obtained

from various schemes.

• Information about the flow of fund



Stakeholder

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

Transport Department

• The department is not

able to track the time of

submission of

grievances and is

thereby not able to

monitor the processing

time. If the process is

automated, then the

department will also be

able to expedite its

response

• Lack of road safety

awareness among the

citizens

• Time spent on paying

taxes for commercial

vehicles

• Long queues at the RTO

office for submission of

License applications

• Information about road safety

precautions / awareness to be

made available to public through

ePRI

• Information about online payment

of taxes for commercial vehicles

Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TNEDA)

• Lack of awareness

among the Panchayat

bodies on non-

renewable sources of

energy

• Lack of initiatives from

the PRI in implementing

schemes of TNEDA

• No help from Panchayat

bodies in identifying

areas and habitations

• Information on non-renewable

sources of energy , schemes and

benefits provided by TNEDA



Stakeholder

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

where citizens do not

have electricity.

BC, MBC and Minorities Welfare Department

There is no official tracking

of population based on

caste

• Maintain caste information of the

population residing in the Village

Panchayats with the approval of

the Govt. of Tamil Nadu.

Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department

GO has been issued

authorizing the Village

Panchayat President to

operate, monitor and

supervise the functioning of

the fair price shops.

In spite of the GO being

issued, no Panchayat

President has so far

obtained license for

operating the fair price

shops.

• Maintain information on cards

allotted, commodities available

and monthly allotment to the

citizens

• Maintain stock board for available

commodities

• Maintain and validate the

Antoyodya Anna Yojna (AAY)

scheme, Anapoorna scheme and

OAP beneficiaries

• Maintain and access database on

the details of family cards



Stakeholder

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

Department of Health and Family Welfare

• Lack of awareness on

schemes and services

rendered by the Health

Department.

• Spreading publicity on

issues such as

population, family

planning, use of

contraceptives, polio

drops for children and

benefits for pregnant

women in the BPL.

• Information on Health and Family

welfare schemes and services

• Information on issues such as

population, family planning, use of

contraceptives, polio drops for

children can be made available

Department of Social Welfare

• Details and exhibits

related to Health,

Nutrition & Education

data of the rural citizens

is currently not being

maintained centrally.

• Most of the elected

representatives are not

fully aware of the

benefits offered by the

Social Welfare

department.

• Maintain and validate a central

database on details and exhibits

• Information on social welfare


6.2. Information and Service Needs of PRI (District Panchayat/ Block Panchayat/ Village Panchayat)



The major concern of the elected members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions is the lack of adequate information sharing mechanism about the various schemes and services offered to the citizens. They feel that the current system and processes are not streamlined and all important data related to the citizens are not available in a centralized manner. Although computers have been provided to them, the absence of trained operators and associated infrastructure makes them virtually non-beneficial in nature. They are also unhappy about the training (computer related and general) offered to them and feel that it is inadequate to help them effectively execute their duties. On interaction with the Panchayat Assistants and Makkal Nalan Paniyalar at the Village Panchayat it was observed that the support staff at the village level was also insufficient. The Makkal Nalan Paniyalar was occupied full time with the managing and monitoring NREGS work, while the Panchayat Assistant would look into general functions of the Panchayat such as record keeping, accounts maintenance etc and thus do not have the time to perform data entry despite the facility of a computer available at the Village Panchayat Office. The Panchayat President and Panchayat Assistant expressed the need for dedicated data entry personnel at the Village Panchayat Office to feed daily progress data into the system. During study it was also noted that this (dedicated data entry personnel) was available at Village Panchayat Offices for 2 years until the contracts were cancelled 3 years ago.



Table 6.2.a: Information Needs of the District, Block and Village Panchayats

PRI Level Challenges / Issues Information Needs

District Panchayat – Dindigul and Villupuram

• There is no proper source of

data/information for,

• Demographic details

• No. of Kuttcha/Pucca Houses

• No. of Cattles, vehicles etc

• Health related data

• Water tables related data

• SHG related data

• Vocation related data

• No. of handicapped citizens

• Schools related data etc....

• Information and progress details

of all schemes are not available.

• Information regarding the

following

Demographic details

No. of Kuttcha/Pucca

Houses

No. of Cattles, vehicles

etc

Health related data

Water tables related

data

SHG related data

Vocation related data

No. of handicapped

citizens

Schools related data

• Progress reports on the

schemes /services

implemented at the District

Block Panchayat - Dindigul and Villupuram

• The road facilities are poor as we

move towards the interior

regions.

• The lack of adequate industrial

jobs in the Kalrayan Hills area, is

forcing landless labourers to

migrate to the neighbouring

States like Karnataka.

• Computers with printer were

supplied to each Village

Panchayat in 2006. However,

they are lying idle for want of

• Progress reports on the

schemes /services

implemented at the District

• Daily progress reports should

be available online



PRI Level Challenges / Issues Information Needs

trained or qualified computer

operator. As of now, there are no

computer operators.

• Linux and computer related

training offered to the teachers is

inadequate.

Table 6.2.b: Service Needs of the District, Block and Village Panchayats

PRI Level Challenges / Issues Service Needs


• The road facilities are poor as we move

towards the interior regions.

• The lack of adequate industrial jobs in

the Kalrayan Hills area, is forcing

landless labourers to migrate to the

neighbouring States like Karnataka.

• Computers with printer were supplied to

each Village Panchayat in 2006.

However, they are lying idle for want of

trained or qualified computer operator.

As of now, there are no computer

operators.

• Linux and computer related training

offered to the teachers is inadequate.

• Online filling of

petitions

• With effective

use of

computers,

data entry work

related to job

cards, family

details and

Nominal Muster

Roll (NMR)

could be

computerized.



Table 6.2.c: Other Needs of the District, Block and Village Panchayats

PRI Level Challenges / Issues Other Needs


• The road facilities are poor as we

move towards the interior

regions.

• The lack of adequate industrial

jobs in the Kalrayan Hills area, is

forcing landless labourers to

migrate to the neighbouring

States like Karnataka.

• Computers with printer were

supplied to each Village

Panchayat in 2006. However,

they are lying idle for want of

trained or qualified computer

operator. As of now, there are no

computer operators.


training offered to the teachers is

inadequate.

• User friendly web design ;

trainings to be conducted on a

periodic basis

Gram Panchayat - Dindigul and Villupuram


training offered to the elected

representatives and teachers is

inadequate.

On interaction with the Panchayat

Assistants and Makkal Nalan

Paniyalar at the Village Panchayat it

was observed that the support staff

at the village level was also

insufficient. The Makkal Nalan

Paniyalar was occupied full time with

• Adequate training to be

provided to them.



PRI Level Challenges / Issues Other Needs

the managing and monitoring

NREGS work, while the Panchayat

Assistant would look into general

functions of the Panchayat such as

record keeping, accounts

maintenance etc and thus do not

have the time to perform data entry

despite the facility of a computer

available at the Village Panchayat

Office. The Panchayat President and

Panchayat Assistant expressed the

need for dedicated data entry

personnel at the Village Panchayat

Office to feed daily progress data

into the system.

6.3 Information and Service Needs of Citizens

The citizens are not satisfied with the current service delivery mechanism as they have to make several trips to the officials to avail the necessary services and benefits. In their opinion, the officials as well as the elected representatives are indifferent and non-cooperative to their needs and problems. They do not have adequate information about the various schemes and service guidelines. They expect a faster turn around time for their issues/grievances and that they are not made to run from pillar-to-post. At Dindigul The following are the I& S needs captured at the Gram Sabha organized at Nagampatti Village (Vedasandur Block) at Dindigul district



Table 6.3.a: Information Needs of the Citizens at Dindigul

Category

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

• Citizen charters to be available

online

Villagers (Gram Sabha Members) - Dindigul

• They have to make multiple

visits to the Taluk/Block office

for availing services.

• They prefer to hand over the

petitions personally to the

Collector. For this, they travel

to the Collectorate incurring

travel expenses and at times

lose a day's wage.

• Lack of awareness about

various schemes due to which

many of them do not draw

benefits from the same.

• They feel the time taken for

service delivery is prolonged.

• Errors/addition/deletions in the

ration card details have not

been addressed despite

repeated applications.

• Unmarried and destitute

women have not been

provided any support despite

repeated applications. There is

no clarity/information about

other schemes that they might

be eligible for.

• There is lack of adequate

pipeline and water supply for

the colony areas for the last 5



Category

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

years.

• The officials have not been

able to address the education

needs of well performing

children

Table 6.3.b: Service Needs of the Citizens at Dindigul

Category

Challenges / Issues

Service Needs

• Facility to file petitions online

• Most of the services should be

delivered at the Panchayat itself.

Citizens should not be made to

run from pillar-to-post.










lose a day's wage.














Category

Challenges / Issues

Service Needs

women have not been





be eligible for.




years.




children

Table 6.3.c: Other Needs of the Citizens at Dindigul

Category

Challenges / Issues

Other Needs

• Τhey expect faster turn around

time for their issues.










lose a day's wage.





Category

Challenges / Issues

Other Needs










women have not been





be eligible for.




years.




children

Village Panchayat Body- Dindigul

• On several occasions, they

themselves are unaware of the

various schemes details and

service guidelines.

• Delays are also due to

intervention of negligent

officials in service delivery

• They would like to have a system

for service delivery through a

transparent mechanism so that

they are not held accountable for

failures.

• More services should be

delivered at the Panchayat itself.



Category

Challenges / Issues

Other Needs

• The Panchayat Assistant and

Makkal Nalan Paniyalar have

their hands full with the existing

work and maintenance of

NREGS records. They do not

get time to perform additional

services and are in need of

supplementary manpower

• 4. There are no computer

operators to perform data entry

related work

Citizens should not be made to

run from pillar-to-post.

Picture 6.1: Gram Sabha proceedings at Nagampatti Village, Dindigul



Picture 6.2: Gram Sabha proceedings at Nagampatti Village, Dindigul

At Villupuram The following are the I & S needs captured from the citizens during the special Gram Sabha session at Villupuram on August 4, 2009.

Table 6.3.d: Information Needs of citizens at Villupuram

Category

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

Focus Group – Woman & Child


women have not been

provided any support

despite repeated

applications.

• The quality as well quantity

of food served for children

in the Anganwadis are not

up to adequate levels.

• Information on social welfare




Category

Challenges / Issues

Information Needs

Focus Group -Senior Citizens

They avail benefits only under

the IGNOAP scheme. There is



be eligible for.


online

Weaker Sections • There is lack of adequate

pipeline and water supply

for the colony areas for the

last 5 years.

• They avail benefits only

under the IAY scheme.

There is no

clarity/information about

other schemes that they

might be eligible for.


online

Rural Artisans No specific service is provided

to the Rural Artisans. There is


schemes that they might be

eligible for.


online


online

Physically disabled

No specific service is provided

to the Physically challenged

citizens. There is no



eligible for.



Table 6.3.e: Service Needs of citizens at Villupuram

Category

Challenges / Issues

Service Needs

Focus Group – Woman & Child


women have not been

provided any support

despite repeated

applications.

• The quality as well quantity

of food served for children

in the Anganwadis are not

up to adequate levels.


Weaker Sections • There is lack of adequate

pipeline and water supply

for the colony areas for the

last 5 years.

• They avail benefits only

under the IAY scheme.

There is no


other schemes that they

might be eligible for.


Rural Artisans No specific service is provided

to the Rural Artisans. There is



eligible for.




Category

Challenges / Issues

Service Needs

Physically disabled

No specific service is provided

to the Physically challenged

citizens. There is no



eligible for.


Table 6.3.f: Other Needs of citizens at Villupuram

Category

Challenges / Issues

Other Needs

Villagers (Gram Sabha Members) - Villupuram

• They have to make

multiple visits to the

Taluk/Block office for

availing services.

• The government officials

are non-cooperative.

• Both the officials as well as

the elected representatives

are indifferent to their

plight and needs.

• They feel the overall

system is ineffective with

regards to Communication,

workflow, documentation

etc.

• Citizens do not avail the

facility of filing online

grievances. They prefer to

hand over the petitions to

the Collector in-person.


• They expect faster turn around time

for their issues.

• More services should be delivered at

the Panchayat itself. Citizens should

not be made to run from pillar-to-

post.



Category

Challenges / Issues

Other Needs

various schemes due to

which many of them do not

draw benefits from the

same.

• They feel the time taken

for service delivery is

prolonged.

• The Anganwadi buildings

are in a dilapidated state

and do not have electricity

supply.

• Errors/addition/deletions in

the ration card details have

not been addressed

despite repeated

applications.

Village President – Villupuram

• They feel the overall

system is ineffective with

regards to Communication,

workflow, documentation

etc.

• The government officials

are non-cooperative.

• On several occasions, they

themselves are unaware of

the various schemes

details and service

guidelines.

They would like to have a system for

service delivery through a transparent

mechanism so that they are not held

accountable for failures.



Picture 6.3: Gram Sabha proceedings at Neelamangalam Village, Villupuram



Picture 6.4: Gram Sabha proceedings at Neelamangalam Village, Villupuram

Gram Sabha meetings are not held regularly on the assigned four

dates in the year. It is invariably the officials at the Block / District

level who direct the activities of the Gram Sabha and the Panchayat

President is the executing authority.

Some people avail multiple benefits under various schemes, while

several others are deprived of the benefits entitled to them.

In spite of online grievance facility being available, in reality, the

citizens do not avail the service. Instead they prefer to hand over the

same personally to the Collector at the Collectorate.

Conclusion



Objective: This section highlights the e Governance readiness of PRIs based on parameters such as level of computerization of PRI, extent of integration of NeGP initiatives with PRI and availability of ICT infrastructure at PRIs in the state.

7 E-GOVERNANCE READINESS The State government acknowledges the significance of

ICT intervention in the improvement of government service delivery mechanism. With the aim of delivering efficient and transparent services to the citizens and automating the workflow and internal processes of the administration, the State has taken several initiatives. Some of the initiatives are sponsored by the State while others are being undertaken as part of the NeGP.

Pilot implementation of e-District, allocation of separate funds for the development of Tamil Software, online employment registration, online grievance redressal, Tele-justice, Tele-medicine and maintenance of comprehensive database of all agricultural lands are some of the State-sponsored initiatives. As districts play a vital role in government administration, every district in the State has its own website disseminating information about various schemes and services. Applications like PRIASOFT for accounting purposes and Rural Action Plan for Integrated Development (RAPID) for NREGS related activities are been used at the District level. Under the NeGP, the State has successfully implemented State Wide Area Network (SWAN) up to the Block level. Works related to certification and implementations of CSCs are progressing at a rapid pace. The State Data Centre (SDC) too has been commissioned to cater to the basic infrastructural needs at the State level. A State Portal with online services and an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Academy to enhance the skills of the faculty engaged in training of ICT related disciplines are some of the other proposed initiatives. In order to augment the ICT infrastructure at government and PRI offices, the State has also recently sanctioned the allotment of additional computers, Fax machines, Xerox machines, Printers and telephone connections.



7.1 Initiatives for computerization of PRI State sponsored initiatives The first Information technology policy was formulated in 1997. In fact, Tamil Nadu was one of the first states to charter an IT policy. IT Policy 2008 has also been drafted. eDistrict Project With districts being the primary delivery channels for government administration to deliver a large number of services to the citizens, e-governance intervention can significantly improve government service delivery at the grassroots level. The e-District program intends at "delivering more than 75% of the services of the Collectorate electronically". Government of Tamil Nadu has envisaged e-District as automation of workflow and internal processes of District Administration with the possibility of seamless integration of various departments including Revenue, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, BC & MBC Welfare, District Social Welfare, etc., for providing services to the citizens. This project is of paramount importance to the State as it would help in creating an automated workflow system for the district administration and help in providing efficient department services. The Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India has accorded administrative approval for implementation of the "Pilot e-District Project" for implementation in five Districts of Thiruvarur, Krishnagiri, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Coimbatore at an estimated outlay of Rs.12.58 crores. M/s. WIPRO has been engaged as the implementation support Agency through specified procedures involving NICSI. As of now, 62 services under 9 departments have been identified for implementation. For the successful implementation of the 'e-District' project, State Project Committee and the District Level Monitoring committee have been constituted and work has been completed in two distinct phases of identifying 'As-Is' processes in the identified services and projecting the 'To-Be' processes so as to reengineer existing procedures and make them deliverable electronically. Tamil Software Development Fund Government of Tamil Nadu has set up a Tamil Software Development Fund (G.O.Ms.No.8.I.T.Department Dated: 6-05-1999). Orders were issued sanctioning a grant of Rs.One crore towards government’s contribution to the initial corpus of Tamil Software Development Fund so as to encourage the development of tools and software in Tamil (G.O.Ms.No.21.I.T.Department Dated: 29-06-1999). A Tamil Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software and English-Tamil Machine Aided Translation Packages have been released. The project



Tamil Word Net is used to enhance Machine Translation. Tamil Linux, Localising Windows, and OCR Software for Tamil Handwriting-phase I, and Localization for Tamil in Mobile Phones are now in progress. ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu to ‘Train the Trainers’ in order to upgrade curriculum, enhance skills of all the faculty engaged in teaching ICT related disciplines in the State and development of content will be set up in the near future. The following are the other e-governance initiatives carried out by the State,

• Employment Online – employment registration can be done online • Online grievances redressal system for Collectors. It would be easier for Collector to track

grievances and address them based on the importance. • Online services for micro, small and medium enterprises. • Chennai Municipal Development Authority (CMDA) – online building plan application status.

Online building plan and status of application can be checked through this portal. • Tenders Tamil Nadu portal – to download tender documents. • RTO e-Services. • Land records e-Services. • Telejustice facility implemented using Video Conferencing at 62 Courts and 9 Prisons in the

State. • Full Text of Reportable Judgments of High Court are hosted for online query and viewing. • Computerization of City Civil Courts & Magistrate Courts have been taken up at Chennai • Comprehensive database of all agricultural land records throughout the State. • Comprehensive guidelines for development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in

Government and the public sector. • Application software has successfully been developed, tested and commissioned for the

Sub-Registrars offices and District Registrars office (operational in 450 such offices). • Application software has been developed and tested for the RTOs, Zonal RTOs and the

Transport Commissioner’s office. This has been commissioned in 99 offices so far. • Application software for Assessment Circles in the Commercial Taxes department has been

implemented in all the 323 assessment offices. • A pilot project for Tele-medicine between a State level tertiary hospital and a rural hospital

has become operational. • A “Video-Conferencing" facility has been set up between the State headquarters and all

District headquarters using VSAT, Leased Lines and ISDN dial-up connectivity. • TN government has sponsored for IT related initiatives such as Coding schemes for Tamil

monolingual and bilingual scripts.



• A certification mechanism to certify compliance of hardware and software offerings with the standards referred to above has been established (So far 26 software and hardware offerings have been certified).

Local initiatives by District Panchayat/ Block Panchayat/ Village Panchayat

• Every district has its own website listing information of all schemes, services and department specific information. The website is developed and maintained by NIC. House site Patta beneficiaries list, 2 acre beneficiaries list, TASMAC tender notice, TASMAC tender form and land record e-service for viewing Patta, verifying Patta and verifying poromboke land are some of the services provided through the district websites. Employment news and details on Village Panchayat TFC Fund Allocation and State Finance Commission fund allocation as per block are also available on these websites.

• eTAX solution developed by Odanthurai village Panchayat in Coimbatore district. This would keep track of taxes filed by the citizens. Yearly or monthly growth of revenues can also be studied through this software.

7.2 Extent of integration of NeGP initiatives with PRI

Status of SWAN In order to run the Mission Mode Projects, either at the Centre or the State, State Wide Area Network (SWAN) is one of the core components required as per the National e-Governance Plan. Government of India has given guidelines on setting up of SWAN and in some instances has also extended financial assistance. The Tamil Nadu Government has accorded administrative sanction for the implementation of TNSWAN at an estimated cost of Rs.181.69 crores which includes State Government share of Rs.84.52 crores and Government of India share of Rs.97.17 crores spread over a period of five years. (Reference: G.O Ms No.31 Dated 18.11.2003 - Setting up of Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) – Orders issued) The objective of the arrangement is to create a Government network for the purpose of delivering G2G (Government to Government) and G2C (Government to Citizen) services. The TNSWAN network is a two-tier architecture.

• Tier 1 is from State to District level • Tier 2 is from District headquarters to Revenue division, Taluk and Block level.

The network connectivity has been established using the bandwidth provided by multiple Public/Private Communication Providers (PCPs)



SWAN roll out has been planned in 2 phases – Horizontal roll out (backbone along the length and breadth of TN) and Vertical rollout (providing connectivity to all government organizations at various levels – State, District, Block and Village)

• As per Phase I of SWAN rollout, Points of Presence (POP) have been deployed up to the Block level in all the districts

• As per Phase II, 20% of the government offices have been integrated with TN SWAN • State to District connection – 4Mbps Leased lines • District to Block connectivity – 2 Mbps leased lines • SWAN connectivity is not available till the Village Panchayat level. But the GPs avail internet

through other providers using funds from the schemes.

TNSWAN interconnects the State Head Quarter with District Head Quarters and each District Head Quarter with Block Head Quarters using the 2 Mbps free bandwidth availed from the PCPs. The total number of Points of Presence (POP) of the network is 708. Apart from the above TNSWAN centers, the network will be connected to the other horizontal offices from TNSWAN center. Necessary termination port will be made available at all centers to link these horizontal offices through suitable channel. Voice, Data and Video connectivity is provided through TNSWAN for providing services to the citizens with improved response-time and transparency. TNSWAN has been set up on BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) basis over a period of 5 years. The State has identified ELCOT as the nodal agency to take overall responsibility for receipt of funding support, implementation and rendering accounts/ Utilization Certificates. State government is planning to launch tools of e-Governance in certain sectors of government through TNSWAN. This will enable citizens to access information on Land Records, Transport Facilities, Encumbrance Certificate, Municipal Services and Food and Civil Supplies from any part of the State. Status of CSC As per the National e-Governance Action Plan (NeGAP), government services should be made available to the common man in his locality through common service outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency reliability and affordability of such services. Accordingly, 5440 rural locations have been identified to establish these Common Service Centers in Tamil Nadu. M/s. IL&FS is the Principal Consultant and M/s.3i Infotech, M/s. SREI Infotech are the Service Center Agencies. The roll out and certification of Centers are progressing rapidly. Out of 5440, around 4732 centers have been identified by the Service Center Agencies, which includes 100% identification in respect of Ariyalur, Dharmapuri, Erode, Kanyakumari, Krishnagiri, Madurai, Nagapattinam, Nilgiris, Perambalur, Ramanathapuram and Trichy Districts. 823 Centers are ready for certification and roll



out. A State Portal with online services is proposed to be created shortly and it will be utilised by the Common Service Centers for the benefit of the citizens. The role of CSC is to provide Business–to–Citizen services (B2C), Business–to–Business services (B2B), Government–to-Citizen services (G2C) and Government as a service provider for the rural consumer. Some of the range of services that may be offered through the CSCs include Agriculture, Banking, Education and Training, Telemedicine, Forms download facility, Ticket reservation, Digital photos, DTP work, Web Surfing, photocopy, CD burning, etc. There is a huge potential for CSCs to act as data collection points in the village for research and government agencies. This could also increase the local employment opportunities in the village. The CSCs will be viewed as a last mile distribution point for delivery of end-to-end rural solutions. In Villupuram District there are 496 CSCs planned to be set up, which roughly works out to be 1 CSC for 3 revenue villages. But hardly 16 have been set up and are presently functioning. Moreover, they do not offer any G2C services. The operator’s income is much lesser compared to his expenses. The only source of revenue for the operator is through commission from mobile and Sun Direct bill payments. Citizens are interested in availing G2C services including payment of land tax / water taxes / electricity bills / BSNL Bills through CSCs. However features to pay the taxes / bills through CSCs are still not made active. Status of SDC In order to provide basic infrastructural necessity at the State level, a Data Centre was commissioned in the Perungudi ELCOT site with a capacity of 2- Main Frame servers, 2 - storage systems and 2- Tape Drives. Currently, the Civil supplies Department, Chennai Corporation, Poompuhar Shipping Corporation, Arasu Cable TV Corporation and M.G.R Medical University have their applications running on the Main Frames and Registration Department, Aavin, Police Department, Prison Department, Tamil Nadu Text Book Corporation, Commercial Taxes Department etc., have their applications running on the rack servers located at the Data Centre. (G.O Ms No. 15 Dated 29.07.2008- Information Technology – Scheme implemented under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) – State Data Centre – Administrative Sanction – Orders issued)

7.3 ICT Infrastructure Assessment

The ICT infrastructure assessment for the entire state indicates the following, Information from the State RD department



• 63 Client type I (Configuration-1) personal computers at the State RD department, 300,

1200 and 8500 at District Panchayats, Block Panchayats and Village Panchayats respectively. The indicative cost per unit for this type of machines comes out to around Rs. 25000.

• With respect to Client Type II (configuration 2) personal computers, there are 112,360 and 700 computers at the State RD department, District Panchayat and Block Panchayats respectively. The indicative cost per unit for this type of machines comes out to around Rs. 30000.

• The State RD department has 6 laptops and the District Panchayats have 32 laptops. The unit cost for these machines works out to around Rs. 35000.

• The State RD department has 5 Laser Printers while the District Panchayats have 64. The unit cost for these machines works out to around Rs. 5600.

• There is one Line matrix printer in the State RD department at an indicative cost of Rs. 300000.

• There are 10 and 32 Dot Matrix Printer (DMP) at the State RD department and District Panchayats respectively at an indicative cost of Rs. 8000.

• The State RD Department has 3 scanners while the District Panchayats have 32. The indicative cost of the same is Rs. 6000.

• There are 3 smart card readers and 2 photocopiers available at the State RD department. • Power backup of UPS 2KVA is available at State RD department, District Panchayats and

Block Panchayats. There are 132 and 385 such UPS at the State RD department, District Panchayats and Block Panchayats respectively. The indicative cost per unit is Rs. 4500.

• The indicative cost for AV client is Rs. 1200 while it is Rs. 20000 for the office suite. • As far as connectivity hardware is concerned, there are 2 Switches (Layer 2) at the State

RD department. • Out of the total 350 employees in the State RD department, 80 use IT extensively. With

respect to the District Panchayats, out of a total strength of 900 people, 300 make use of IT. The figure at the block Panchayat level is 6500 total employees and 2700 IT users.

Information from the Dindigul district

• There are 5 Client Type I (configuration 1) personal computers at the District Panchayats, 3 at Block Panchayats and 1 at Village Panchayats. The indicative per unit cost for these machines is Rs. 26000.

• 1 laser printer is available at the District Panchayat office. Line matrix printers are available at District Panchayat, Block Panchayats and Village Panchayats.



• A pen drive is provided to District Panchayat, Block Panchayat and Village Panchayat. Photocopiers are available at District Panchayat and Block Panchayat.

• There are 2 power backup facilities at District Panchayat and 1 each at Block Panchayats and Village Panchayats.

• Licensed OS is available at state RD department, district Panchayat, block Panchayats and village Panchayats

Information from the Villupuram district

• There is only one computer available at District Panchayat. One computer is available at the Village Panchayat level.

• One Line Matrix printer is available at the District Panchayat office though it is a property of District Planning Cell.

• One photocopier is available at the District Panchayat office. • Linux Operating System and Open Office are installed at District Panchayat and village

Panchayat offices.

7.4 Civil work Assessment

At Dindigul At a typical Block Development office handling NREGS scheme, there are 2 computer operators, 2 Xerox machines, 1 printer and 1 UPS. Although there are 3 computers, only 2 are being used due to non-availability of manpower and frequent power cuts. Internet connection at BDO office is made available from TN-SWAN and ELCOT. For other general work in the BDO office, 4 computers, two each for the Block Village Panchayat and the Block Panchayat Office have been provided. The Village Panchayat and the Block Panchayat Offices have 2 printers each. For data entry related work, there are 2 operators for the NREGS scheme alone. For the other schemes and services, there is one operator each for the two block Panchayats. Generally, most of the work in BDO office still involves paperwork except for the NREGS reports that are sent online on a daily basis to the District. At Villupuram There are about 50 members working in the BDO office. There are 6 computers out of which 4 are exclusively allotted to NREGS work. One operator has been appointed to operate these 4 NREGS



computers. Assistants trained in computers also operate these NREGS accounts, if the need be. The office has 35 tables, 1 Xerox machine and 1 printer. At the Panchayat office, there is a telephone connection and a computer with web camera. RD Departments proposal for 2009-2010

• Provision of Fax Machines The Government has sanctioned 29 Fax Machines to Assistant Directors (Panchayats) at a total cost of Rs. 4.64 lakhs vide G.O.Ms.No.76, RD & PR Department dated 22.5.08

• For the year 2009 – 10, it is proposed to provide 16 Fax machines to the Development wings of Collectorate of 15 Districts.

• Provision of Xerox Machines For the year 2009 – 10, it is proposed to provide 17 Xerox Machines to the Development

wing of Collectorate of 16 Districts. • Provision of Computers and Accessories

The government has sanctioned 89 desktop computers and accessories to Development wings of Collectorates at the rate of 3 computers per Collectorate at a total cost of Rs. 43.50 lakhs (G.O. Ms.No. 78 RD & PR(SGS –IV) Department dated 22.5.08).

• The government has also sanctioned 9 Laser Printers to the Directorate of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj at a total cost of Rs. 1.98 lakhs (G.O. Ms.No. 77 RD & PR(SGS-IV) Department dated 22.5.08).

• Provision of new telephone connections For the year 2009 – 10, it is proposed to provide new telephone Connections to 3 Additional Directors of the Directorate of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj at a total cost of Rs. 0.85 lakh.\

• Training Institution It is proposed to provide furniture and equipments for the hostel buildings of Regional Institutes of Rural Development at T. Kallupatty, S.V. Nagaram, Bhavanisagar, Pattukkottai and Krishnagiri at a total cost of Rs.16.23 lakhs.

Information common to both the districts Our observations common to both the districts are as listed below,

• A Computer has been provided to each Panchayat. • Minimal computer training has been given to Panchayat Presidents, but that it is not

adequate to make them competent. • Temporary Computer operators were appointed by Panchayat Presidents earlier. Currently,

there are no computer operators in any of the Panchayats.



• In some Panchayats, records of NREGS workers were created for tracking when the operators were present, but the same is not in use now.

• All attendance and job card details are entered at the Block level. Online entry of NREGS software is made in Rural Action Plan for Integrated Development (RAPID) software at the district level.

• Initially, computers were provided for the Panchayats having Windows operating system. With the introduction of NREGS those Panchayats, which did not have computers, were provided ones with Linux.

• Panchayat Office houses the computer. On an average, there is a 1 to 2 hour power cut daily during the day time.

• PRIASOFT for accounting and RAPID for NREGS are used at the district level. Both of them are online software and do not run in case of power/internet interruptions. Additionally, PRIASOFT does not have all the Account Heads required by user departments. In RAPID, the issue is that the software can allow entry of only fixed assets while support for Operations and Maintenance (O & M) costs is not available.

• Power and internet interruptions are frequent in remote areas.

The state has been initiating several initiatives to promote e-

governance. eDistrict, Telejustice facility, RTO e-services, Land

records e-services are some of the prominent initiatives started by the

state. Emphasis has been placed on promoting local language and

culture as testified by Tamil software development fund.

During study it was observed that the CSCs have been recently

inaugurated at the Village Panchayats. However, only a fraction of

them are currently operational. There is a demand for availing G2C

services through CSCs though it has still not been brought into effect.

A handful of departments such as Police, Commercial Taxes have their

applications hosted on Mainframes servers at the State Data Centre

(SDC). Once TNSWAN roll out is complete, information on Land

Records, Transport Facilities, Encumbrance Certificate, Municipal

Services and Food and Civil Supplies will be accessible from any part

of the State. Equipping Panchayats with internet/broadband will

enable Panchayat offices to provide these departmental online

services.

Conclusion



Objective: This section outlines both the availability and requirement of manpower at PRI and our assessment of their capabilities in terms of basic computer knowledge. Details of various training institutes and modules being used for capability enhancement of PRI members have been included. Training requirements of PRI personnel have also been discussed.

8 STATE CAPACITY ASSESSMENT The State Government has taken several initiatives

with the aim of augmenting the capacity building activities of the government officials and the elected representatives.

The State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) is the nodal agency for all training related activities and is supported by five other Regional Institutes of Rural Development (RIRD). These institutes collaborate with several Universities and Trusts to impart relevant training to the officials and the RPI members. In

addition, appropriate trainings are also imparted to Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). The training programs for the PRIs cover diverse topics ranging from Panchayati Raj administration to computers. Training is imparted by making effective use of different modes like presentations, group discussions, games and sharing of experiences. The team interacted with several administrative staff, line department officials and elected members at all the three levels of the PRIs to assess their computer skills, capabilities and training requirements.

8.1 Capacities (PRI personnel, technical professionals, administrative officials etc.) Snap Shot of Tamil Nadu To augment capacity building a State e-Mission Team (SeMT) has been set up at TNeGA with domain expertise in program management, technology and change management. The SeMT has been designed to assist the Government in providing overall direction, standardization and program management for e-Governance initiatives undertaken by the State.



PRI Personnel The below table gives the figures for the strength of the elected representatives,

Table 8.1: Details of seats and offices in Rural Local Bodies

S. No. Elected Representatives Strength

1 Village Panchayat wards 40,879

2 Village Panchayat ward members 97,458

3 Panchayat Union wards 6,570

4 District Panchayat wards 656

5 Village Panchayat Presidents 12,618

6 Panchayat Union Chairpersons 385

7 District Panchayat Chairpersons 29

. 8.1.1. The Technical Professional There are 10 faculty members at the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), 25 faculty members at the Regional Institute of Rural Development (RIRD) and 25 resource members to conduct trainings and lectures. The resource members include,

• Retired officers of RD and sectoral departments • Serving officers at RD and sectoral departments • Bank officers from NABARD and nationalized banks • University professors, area experts • Trainers from MSSRF, UNICEF, NIRD, TNCDW, VKP etc. • Elected representatives of the 3 tiers of rural local bodies • Mahatma Gandhi award winners • SHG / PLF members



Channel partners for PRI training The following are the channel partners for PRI training,

• Ganghigram Rural University, Gandhigram • Dr.M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai • Dhan Foundation, Madurai • Myrada, Dharmapuri • ASSESFA, Chennai • Avinasilingam Deemed University • National Agro Foundation • Scope, Trichy • Coodu Trust, Dindugal • Gramalaya • CASA, Chennai • SHARE, Vellore • SEVAI Trust • Gandhigram Trust • Kumarappara Institute, T. Kallupatti • Sri Ramakrishna Mission, P.N. Palayam,

8.1.2 Administrative Officials The below table gives the figures for the strength of the Administrative personnel in the State,

Table 8.2: Details of the strength of the Administrative Personnel

S. No. Administrative Personnel Strength

1 Block Development Officers (385X2) 770

2 Project Officers 32

3 District Collectors 32

4 A.D. Panchayat 32

5 A.D. Audit 32

6 Block Engineers ( AE / U.Es) (385X2)

770



S. No. Administrative Personnel Strength

7 Block Overseers (385X2)

770

The below table gives the vacancies at each level against the sanctioned number of personnel

Table 8.3: Number of officials actually present vis-à-vis sanctioned

Number of posts S. No

Posts Sanctioned Vacant

1 Joint Director Cadre 76 0

2 Additional Director Cadre 18 1

3 Assistant Director Cadre 392 105

4 Executive Engineers 46 1

5 Additional Executive Engineer 228 0

6 Joint /Assistant Engineer 1253 348

7 Overseers 1441 39

8 Road Inspectors 1128 426

9 Junior Drafting officers 161 5

10 Block Development Officers (Village Panchayat) 388 9

11 Block Development Officers (Block Panchayat) 385 8

12 Panchayat Assistants 12618 104

13 Makkal Nala Paniyalar 13100 350



8.2 Skills and Capabilities

• Tamil Nadu has a good literacy growth. English is a well used language for communication

at the State level. But as we moved towards the districts, blocks and villages, we found that the Government officials and the staff were not well versed with English.

• 70% of machines have Linux as the Operating System (OS) and the rest have Windows as the OS. As we moved from the State to the districts it was observed that PRI members have difficulty in working on Linux due to insufficient training and lack of working knowledge in computers.

• At the State, Government officials were well aware of ICT and its usage. But as study progressed to the districts and the blocks, it was observed that there was lack of adequate awareness about ICT.

8.2.1 Skills for Self Help Groups & Individual Swarozgars The below table gives the details about the count of SHGs in the various districts and the nature of training imparted to them,

Table 8.4: Details about the SHGs and trainings imparted

SHGs trained

No. of persons trained

S. No

District Total SC ST

Women

Courses

1 Kancheepuram 15 169 99 7 136 Catering, Motor

winding

2 Tiruvallur 20 268 148 0 203 Tailoring, catering,

fashion, driving

3 Vellore 82 146 33 71 115 Computer, Electrician

,Fitter

4 Tiruvannamalai 24 60 20 35 90 Computer, Tailoring,

Driving

5 Dharmapuri 52 115 115 174 Tailoring,Rexine

leather, Paper plate



SHGs trained


S. No


Women

Courses

6 Krishnagiri 41 90 90 170 Tailoring,Rexine

leather, Paper plate

7 Salem 120 359 0 359 359 Tailoring, Beautician,

Rexine, Coir making

8 Namakkal 62 135 0 135 135 Tailoring, Beautician,

Rexine, Coir making

9 Erode 75 225 82 174 62 Tailoring, Computer

10 Coimbatore 84 170 65 170 129 Tailoring, Bags,

Baking, Beautician

11 Nilgiris 56 127 70 62 65 Computer, Tailoring,

12 Cuddalore 35 501 66 20 140

Candle, Appalam,

seaweed /Crab

culture, Book binding,

Horticulture, Coir

making, Herbal

Products, Palm

products & Masonry

13 Villupuram 20 257 50 10 85 Appalam, Jam,

seaweed /Crab

culture, Vermi culture

14 Thanjavur 158 585 87 45 283 Computer, Tailoring

15 Nagapattinam 2 231 37 18 44 Lather products

16 Tiruvarur 54 150 15 12 28 Computer, Tailoring,



SHGs trained


S. No


Women

Courses

17 Trichy 52 130 25 1 122 Terracotta, Greeting

card, Ready made,

Home appliance

18 Perambalur 47 101 31 1 36 Driving

19 Pudukottai 34 87 43 0 82 Screen Print, Home

App ,Note making,

Table mat making

20 Dindigul 18 74 27 12 41 Tailoring

21 Karur 11 37 21 8 21 Tailoring

22 Madurai 14 59 4 0 30 Computer, Tailoring,

Toys

23 Theni 87 196 45 0 124 Computer, Tailoring,

Toys

24 Ramanad 19 49 5 10 39 Computer

25 Virudhunagar 25 46 31 0 27 Computer

26 Sivagangai 24 55 9 0 54 Tailoring

27 Tirunelveli 132 314 9 27 259 Computer, Coir,

Fisheries, Honey

28 Tuticorin 114 148 4 0 141 Computer, Coir,

Seashore sippies,

Panai

29 Kanyakumari 112 248 0 0 169 Service Kiosk, Lather

products, Bakery,



SHGs trained


S. No


Women

Courses

Napkin, wiring,

seaweed /Crab

culture, Coir making,

Herbal Products, Palm

products & Masonry,

Fishnet, Tailoring, 9

Hollow Block, Tiles,

Photography

Total 1589 5132 1026 1382 3363

8.3 Training

8.3.1 Training needs Linux is the Operating System that has been commonly installed on the machines across the 3 tiers. About 70 percent of the Village Panchayats have Linux operating system based computers. The choice of using Linux is based on factors such as cost benefit, open source, less prone to virus attacks and less frequent patch updates. Although periodic trainings have been conducted for government officials and elected members at all three tiers, it was observed that they have difficulty in working on Linux. It was also observed during study that the trainings offered at SIRD/ RIRD for PRIs was more or less a one time activity during their tenure. On interaction with the PRI officials, we observed that despite the Linux trainings sessions provided at SIRD/RIRD the PRI officials were not comfortable working on Linux systems. The following table presents an indicator of the proficiency levels observed at the various levels, (This table was built with the observations / interactions at the State, District, Block and Village level Offices)

Table 8.5: Indicative list of the proficiency levels



Basic Computer Knowledge

Knowledge on MS Office

Usage Of ICT Tools ( webcam, printers, Fax)

Internet and Email

State RD Department High High High High

PR Directorate High High High High

BDO Office Medium Medium Medium Low

Panchayat members at District, Block and Village

Low Low Low Low

Panchayat Heads at the District, Block and Village

Low Low Low Low

Village Panchayat Assistants

Low Low Low Low

Other Related Departments

Medium Medium Low Low



8.3.2. Trainings provided Training provided so far

Table 8.6: Details about the training provided year-wise.

Year No. of training

Programs No. of participants

2001–2002 77 2176

2002-2003 62 2470

2003-2004 83 2670

2004-2005 86 3513

2005-2006 121 4451

2006-2007 196 14484

2007-2008 158 9202

A few important titles of training programs are listed below,

• Foundation Course for Block Development Officers • Training of Trainers (ToT) for SIRD and RIRD faculties • Workshop on Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme • Course on Managerial Skills • Course on National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme-TN • Course on Computer Applications in Rural Development and PR • Course on Implementation of Rural Development Programs • Course on Rural Development Schemes and Guidelines for PRIs • Course on Financial Management and Audit in PRIs • Training of Trainers (ToT) on SGSY • Course on Leadership and Organizational Development • Course on Panchayat Raj Finances • Course on Management of Micro Credit and Micro Enterprises in SGSY • Course on Marketing Management of Micro enterprises in SGSY • Course on Rural Engineering



The Training Methodology Training is imparted through the effective use of diverse modes. These are as listed below,

• Experience sharing • Content Presentation , Games • Paper presentations • Group discussions • Presentations and discussions • Preparation of Action Plans

The participants are categorized in to various levels depending on their needs and the functions executed by them. These different levels are as follows,

Table 8.7: Level of participants as per their needs and responsibilities

Category Officials

Group 1(State) Principal Secretary, Commissioner, Joint Director

Group 2 (District) District Collector, P.A.P.D, PO(DRDA), PO (Mahalir Thittam), AD

Panchayat, AD Audit, EE, AEE, District Panchayat Chairman, District

Panchayat ward members

Group 3 (Block) Block Development Officer (BDO), Deputy BDO ,Village block

development officer, Assistant Engineer (AE), Panchayat Union

Chairman, Panchayat Union ward members

Group 4 (Village) Village Administrative Officer, Village Clerk, Village Assistant, Village

Panchayat President, Village Panchayat Assistant

Group 5 (NGOs) Self help groups, Asha workers, NGOs



SIRD – Thrust areas SIRD has envisaged enhanced training for the officials and elected members with a special focus on the following areas,

• Research • Consultancy and • Information dissemination

SIRD is engaged in the following thrust areas of activities,

• Organizing training programs, conferences, seminars and workshops. • Undertaking promotion and coordination for research on its own. At times it collaborates

with universities. • Analyzing and proposing solutions to problems in planning and implementation of the

programs for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj. • Disseminating information through periodicals, reports, booklets and other publications.

Objectives for the State/ Regional Workshop Several State level and Regional workshops are proposed with the following objectives,

• To identify the types of training programs required in the areas of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development.

• To finalize the strategy for imparting training. • To discuss and validate the training modules and finalize the training materials. • To design the course brochures. • To draw the list of resource persons / facilitators.

The workshops extend for a duration of 3 days at five regions viz. Villupuram, Trichy, Coimbatore, Madurai and Salem and a consolidation of regional workshops takes place at the State level in SIRD, Maraimalainagar.



The following is a snapshot of the trainings provided at SIRD for the period 2008-09,

Table No. 8.8 : Training provided at SIRD for the period 2008-09

STATE INSTITUTE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT , MARAIMALAI NAGAR

Programme-wise break-up of training programmes during the year 2008-09

PRIs Officials

S. No Courses No of Days No. of

Batches Male Fem. No. of Batches Male Fem.

1

NREGS-TN (off-Campus) 2 36 1833 1147 47 3488 795

2 NREGS-TN 2,3 0 0 18 342 121

3 ToT under BRGF 6 3 114 21

3 RGSY 1,2,3,5 24 284 207 35 770 220

4 Orientation course for PRIs 3 2 0 61 0 0

5 Computer course 5 0 0 11 200 51

6 Foundation course 3 0 0 3 58 25

7 Course on Implementation of RD Programmes

3 0 0 1 23 2

8 TOT(STAP)(NIRD - Funding) 5 7 253 21 0 0

9 TNVKP- Induction training 18 0 0 9 259 48

10

Course on Micro Credit and Micro Enterprises Development

3 0 0 0 0

11 TNA workshop 3 1 41 6

12 Course on Technology Support Service for RD

3 1 7 3

13 Training on Audit & Accounts in RD 3 2 42 10



STATE INSTITUTE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT , MARAIMALAI NAGAR

Programme-wise break-up of training programmes during the year 2008-09

PRIs Officials

S. No Courses No of Days No. of

Batches Male Fem. No. of Batches Male Fem.

14 ToT for HIV/ AIDS course 5 1 29 4

15 Role of NGOs in RD & PR 3

16 NIRD - Off-campus prog. 5 4 87 18

Total 69 2370 1436 136 5460 1324 Trainings at the RIRDs The itinerary for the trainings designed for newly elected representatives and appointed officials is as follows,

• The Training with the Collector and other development officers is conducted only for 1 week in the first instance, which is basically to report to the Collector, meet the Personal Assistant (Panchayat Development), Project Officer, District Rural Development Agency, Personal Assistant (NMP), etc. and familiarize oneself with the organizational set up and general working in Collectorate, District Rural Development Agency respective offices and to receive the Panchayat Union attachment orders.

• The training with Extension Officer includes visits to and study of Panchayats that have success stories, that are mediocre and that which are in bad shape. These visits are conducted for at least 2-3 days per Panchayat. During this period the trainee is attached to a Panchayat President to understand the work of a Panchayat President.

This correlates with the assignment from State Institute of Rural Development The trainee can accompany the Extension Officer through the rest of the time to understand the work of Extension Officer

• The training with lead bank also includes field visit with the banker for loan appraisal, recovery, etc., work that the banker has on the Rural Development schemes routed through bank, as well as other schemes of bank related to rural development (e.g. NABARD’s Schemes).



• The types of programs like trainings, workshops, seminars to be required for each category of target groups and the functionaries are identified and accordingly the state action plan for training has been designed.

Around 80% of the elected Panchayat Presidents are expected to be new comers due to the reservation and rotation policies. Hence they need to be well oriented about Panchayat Raj Institutions, their duties, roles and responsibilities and implementation of the various schemes. To make this possible, the Govt. of Tamil Nadu has initiated 2-day orientation training to all the newly elected Panchayat Presidents at various venues in the districts.

• The first day of the training covers information about Panchayat Raj. • The second day is devoted to scheme implementation. • The number of participants varies from 80-120 and the venues are fixed taking into account

a central location of the participating blocks.

8.3.3 Availability of Training Institutes

• SIRD works as an autonomous organization under the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department of Government of Tamil Nadu. SIRD was established in 1961 and attained autonomous status in 1990 and started functioning in Maraimalai Nagar campus since 1991.

• The 5 Regional RIRDs are functioning at S.V.Nagaram, Krishnagiri, Pattukottai, T.Kallupatti and Bhavanisagar and cater to the needs of the districts earmarked to them.

• The State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) aims to enhance the development in rural development and motivate the elected representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) to be proactive through capacity building activities. Capacity building is fundamental part in the development efforts through which the delivery system can be made effective. At the State level this endeavor is taken up by the SIRD.



Figure 8.1: Locations of SIRD and the five RIRDs. The Infrastructure

The following table gives details about the physical infrastructure available at the SIRD,

Table No. 8.9 Infrastructure at SIRD

Total area of the Institute 24 Acres.

Number of Buildings

• Academic Block 1192.93 sq.m

• Administrative Block 638.89 sq.m

• Hostel 2252.28 sq.m

• VIP Guest House 209.06 sq.m

• Staff quarters 309.67 sq.m

Number of Guest Houses/Hostels with capacity

VIP Guest House – one

Hostel – to accommodate 100 persons



Number of Conference Halls

Three Conference Halls

• A/C Main Hall –60 persons capacity

• A/c Mini Hall – 30 persons capacity

• Non A/c Hall – 100 persons capacity

Number of Lecture Halls • One Lecture hall

• 25 persons capacity

Number of Residential Quarters 7 MIG Houses (Twin type-900sq.ft.) each

Generator Facility 50 KVA Capacity -1

5 KVA capacity -1

Number of Vehicles

• Ambassador cars – 3 (Only one is in

running condition)

• Tata Sumo – 1 (9 years old)

• Mini Bus – 1 (Purchased in 1991)

Number of TVs/CD/DVD Players 2 TVs, One VCR

Since 70 to 80 % of the elected representatives are elected for

the first time, the attendance level is on an average 90 to 95%.

There were no RIRDs located in the districts where the study

was conducted. During field study it was noted that although T.

Kalupatti is the nearest RIRD to Dindigul district, trainings were

conducted at Bavani Sagar. Similarly at Villupuram, the

Panchayat presidents attended trainings at Krishnagiri as

opposed to SV Nagaram which is closer to Villupuram. SIRD

does not maintain district specific data w.r.t trainings provided

by RIRDs. The data maintained at the RIRDs and the SIRD is not

consolidated in one place and there was is one centralized

database from where the information can be accessed.

Conclusion



Objective: This section illustrates various citizen service delivery mechanisms, PPP models and initiatives undertaken by the PRIs at their own and overall at the state level. The analysis is based on information collected on the field through interaction with PRI members and most importantly citizens.

9 CITIZEN SERVICE DELIVERY

By virtue of the TN Panchayat Act of 1994, Panchayat Raj system is involved in various stages of service delivery. The Panchayat system has a direct or indirect role in the delivery of services to the public. There are specific line departments for handling and processing the various services. While the Panchayat bodies are the rightful authority for providing basic amenities to the public, most of the other services are provided by the concerned line departments with the Panchayats

playing either no or a very minimal role. In the state of Tamil Nadu, there are no Public Private Partnerships (PPP) or Revenue Sharing Models for Citizen Service Delivery. The Service Model is entirely Government owned and it is carried out by the line department officials with some help from the Panchayats. CSCs are based on PPP model, but at present they do not offer G2C Services. Services: An Overview During the course of field study, fifteen services were identified common to both the districts where the local Panchayat body has a role to play. The list of the fifteen services is as follows: 1 Civic amenities which includes:

1 Construction, repair and maintenance of all village roads. 2 Extension of village sites and the regulation of buildings. 3 Lighting of public roads and public places in built-up areas. 4 Construction of drains. 5 Cleaning of streets and improvement of the sanitary condition of the village. 6 Construction and maintenance of public latrines. 7 Sinking and repairing of wells, the excavation, repair and maintenance of ponds or tanks

and the construction and maintenance of water-works for the supply of water. 8 Maintenance of burial and burning grounds. 9 Maintenance of parks and reading rooms.

2 Utility services which include EB, water and telephone bills 3 Collection of taxes such as water, entertainment, advertisement, house, property etc. 4 NREGS job card- the Village Panchayat issues an NREGS job card to all members who enroll

in the NREGS scheme. 5 IAY- the Panchayat President is involved in preparing the beneficiary list and monitoring the

activities under the scheme.



6 TSC- the Panchayat President creates awareness among the people regarding total sanitation and also facilitates the implementation of the process.

7 RTI 8 Grievances 9 Residence/domicile/nativity certificate 10 Birth Certificates 11 Death Certificate 12 NOC for Issuing Patta 13 Preparation of BPL List 14 Signing applications and providing recommendation letters for old age/widow/handicap/deserted

women/ destitute / agriculture laborers (Revenue Department) 15 Providing recommendation letters and signing applications for social welfare schemes (two girl

child, death of the head of the family etc.)

9.1 Citizen Service Delivery Mechanism

The following sections describes the agencies involved, delivery channels, service delivery mechanism and service model adapted for the 15 common services identified in both the districts. 9.1.1. Civic Amenities This is the mandatory function of any Village Panchayat as per the Government Orders. This includes the construction and repair of roads, providing water supply, electricity including street lighting, good sanitation facilities, wells, ponds, burning and burial grounds, parks, reading rooms and all other specific civic amenities that may be required by the village citizens.



Acceptance of application

Delivery tier Delivery channel Stakeholders involved Service model

No application

involved here.

The request is

made by word

of mouth only.

Village

Panchayat

Village

Panchayat • If the service

request can be

processed within

the 2 lakh fund

allotted to the

Village Panchayat,

then the Village

Panchayat is the

only agency

involved

• If the service

requires a fund

greater than 2 lakh

then the proposal

is put forward to

the BDO. The BDO

makes an estimate

of the work with the

help of the

Engineering wing

at the Block. If the

work exceeds Rs

10 lakhs then the

work is placed for

approval from the

District Collector. If

the work is within

Rs 10 lakhs , the

BDO is incharge of

Government owned



Acceptance of application


floating tenders

and executing the

work.

Service delivery mechanism A citizen communicates his request for civic amenity facility to the ward member, who in turn communicates it to the Panchayat President. The Panchayat President is the executive authority to implement any developmental work in the village within a sum of Rs. 2 lakh. The General Fund account is the source of funds for such activities. The village Panchayat President might execute the work with his local men in which case the wages are given in cash. If the work is of a bigger scale then an external agency is involved. Tenders are floated and a suitable agency is selected at the Gram Sabha. A cheque is issued for the required amount with the signature of the President, countersigned by the Vice President. If the amount exceeds Rs. 2 lakhs, then the proposal is put forward to the BDO of Village Panchayat. The BDO in turn, with the aid of his engineering wing, prepares a rough estimate of the project. If the work exceeds Rs 10 lakhs then the BDO submits the report of his inspection to the Project Officer (PO, DRDA) on the approval from the Panchayat Union. The PO then proposes the project to the Collector. Once the Collector approves the work, the fund is drawn from the corresponding scheme and diverted to the Panchayat Account. If the work is within Rs 10 lakhs, the BDO is incharge of floating tenders and executing the work. 9.1.2. Utility Services This service includes the payment of

• EB bills • Water bills • Telephone bills

The Village Panchayat is responsible for the payment of electricity, water and telephone bills within the village and the Panchayat offices.



Acceptance of application Delivery tier Delivery channel

Stake holders involved

Service model

No citizen request

involved here. It is one

of the mandated

functions of the Village

Panchayat.

Village

Panchayat

Village

Panchayat

Village

Panchayat, The

Electricity board,

TWAD, BSNL

Government

owned

Service delivery mechanism No citizen request is involved. The Panchayat President pays the utility bills for the village. The EB, TWAD board officials issue the electricity and water bills respectively based on the meter readings. The Panchayat President then hands over a cheque for the required amount at the concerned office. The BSNL bills are paid at the BSNL office in cash. The amount remaining after the settlement of bills can be transferred to the General Fund Account by producing a No Dues Certificate to the Collector.

9.1.3 Collection of Taxes This includes water tax, building tax, professional tax, house tax, library tax, 2C and also licenses such as fairs, dangerous and offensive traders, small scale industries and toll gate fees.

Acceptance of the application

Delivery tier Delivery channel Stakeholders involved

Service model

Taxes are collected at

the Village Panchayat

Village

Panchayat

Village Panchayat

Village Panchayat Government

owned

Service delivery mechanism The Clerk / Assistant notifies the village citizens about the payment of taxes. Ideally the citizens should pay the taxes at the Panchayat Office. But this seldom happens. The Clerk/ Assistant visits



each of the houses to collect the taxes. A voucher is issued as an acknowledgement of the taxes paid by the citizen. 9.1.4. NREGS Job Card: NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) In this service the Village Panchayats are mandated to issue job cards to all those who register themselves for employment under the NREGS scheme.

Application received


Service model

Village Panchayat

Village

Panchayat

Village Panchayat Village Panchayat,

Block Development

office

Government

owned

Service delivery mechanism

• Any adult member of a household who is able to undertake unskilled labor work can register with the Village Panchayat or the Block Office. Registrations can be made through out the year.

• The concerned Village Panchayat verifies the contents of the application and the same are considered for approval in the Gram Sabha.

• After verification, the Village Panchayat enters all particulars in the registration register in the Village Panchayat. Thereafter a Job Card is issued by the Village Panchayat to each applicant who has registered and is found eligible.

9.1.5 IAY: Identification of the beneficiaries This service involves the identification of beneficiaries for the IAY scheme. The citizens who want to apply for the scheme can do so with a petition which is submitted along with the supporting documents.



Service model

Village Panchayat Village Village Panchayat Village Government





Service model

Panchayat and Block Panchayat

Panchayat, BDO owned

Service delivery mechanism Once a citizen applies for the IAY scheme, a beneficiary list is prepared by the Village Panchayat of all the eligible candidates. The list is approved in the Grama Sabha. It is then sent to the BDO, who after reviewing makes an estimate of the fund required and then forwards it to the PO. The PO submits it to the Collector and gets his sanction. The centre contributes Rs. 20,000 and the state offers Rs. 35,000 as roofing costs. The state’s contribution includes materials such as water closet, cement and steel rods procured at tender rates. The amount remaining after accounting for the cost of these materials is given to the beneficiary in the form of a cheque or transferred to his/her bank account. This is applicable until the total amount does not exceed Rs. 55,000 for construction of the group houses. Any further expense exceeding this amount is borne by the beneficiary. 9.1.6 TSC (Total Sanitation Campaign) As a part of this service, the Panchayat Raj institutions are responsible to motivate the communities to promote sustainable sanitation facilities through awareness creation and health education. They also prepare the beneficiary list for the TSC scheme.

Application received Delivery tier Delivery channel Stakeholders involved

Service model

Village Panchayat Village

Panchayat

Village Panchayat

and

Block Panchayat

Village

Panchayat, BDO

Government

owned



Service delivery mechanism Similar to the IAY scheme, the citizen applies with a petition and supporting documents at the Village Panchayat. The beneficiary list is prepared by the Village Panchayat President and reviewed at the Gram Sabha. Generally, all the beneficiaries availing the IAY scheme are also given the TSC benefit. In certain backward villages, the Panchayat President first tries to hold awareness campaigns to educate the citizens regarding the needs of total sanitation. Depending on the Above Poverty List or Below Poverty List and whether the toilets are individual or institutional, the contribution of GoI and the State government differs. The Panchayat president gets loan assistance from bank for 50 percent of the amount. The Panchayat President contributes the remaining 50 percent which would be a combination of Central and State assistance. The Central assistance are released to the Implementing Agency in four installments (30, 30, 30, and 10 percentage).The first installment is released immediately after approval of the project proposal by the National Scheme Sanctioning Committee subject to receipt of details of the Implementing Agency at District level and name of the bank, IFSC Code and A/c. No. etc. The release of further installments will be subject to the conditions such as release of State share, Household / Community contribution, Expenditure and Utilization Certificate and Audit Certificate. 9.1.7 RTI- Right to Information The Right to Information Act came into effect on 12th October, 2005. The Right to Information includes the right to:

• Inspect works, documents, and records. • Take notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records. • Take certified samples of material. • Obtain information in form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any

other electronic mode or through printouts.


Service model

Public Information

Office of the concerned

line department /

Panchayat

District Level Public Information

Officer

Public Information

Officer, officials of

the concerned line

department /

Panchayats

Government

owned



Service delivery mechanism The PIOs (Public Information Officer) are designated in all administrative units or offices and they are responsible to provide information to the citizens requesting information under the Act. The applicant has to submit the application (on plain paper) specifying the particulars of the information sought and submit it to the PIO along with the prescribed fees. The prescribed time limit to get the information is as follows,

• 30 days from the date of application • 48 hours for information concerning the life and liberty of the person • 5 days shall be added to the above response time, in case the application for information is

given to the Assistant Public Information Officer. • If the interests of a third party are involved then time limit will be 40 days (maximum period +

time given to the party to make representation. As a local practice, the information is provided within a span of 3-4 days. Sometimes the information is rejected if it is covered by exemption from disclosure or it infringes the copyright of any person other than the State. The fee for the application is prescribed in the corresponding GO. No fee is charged for people living below the poverty line. If the PIO fails to furnish the information in the required time limit, then the information has to be provided to the applicant free of cost. The cost for availing the information was reduced by the State from Rs 50 to Rs10 by means of an amendment of the RTI Act, 2005. As a part of the Act in Tamil Nadu, all the line departments have released their own manuals and information handbooks. The TN government website also describes their organizational structure, functions, activities and other related information. Any further information that a citizen seeks can be availed by submitting the application to the PIO. The contacts of all the PIOs in the District are provided in the district websites. 9.1.9 NOC for Land Patta The revenue department handles all applications relating to Patta, be it the transfer of a Patta from one person to other or the issuance of a new Patta. The Village Panchayat President plays a minor role in the process.



Village

Administrative

District The District

Revenue office,

Village Panchayat

President or the

Government



office

Revenue office Village Panchayat,

Village

Administrative

office

VAO, Surveyor,

RI, Tahsildar

(Taluk office)

owned

Service delivery mechanism The application form is filled by the applicant, signed and handed over to the Village Administrative Officer (VAO). The Surveyors measure the land and assign survey numbers. Thereafter the application is forwarded to the Revenue Inspector (RI). The RI inspects the land and submits the report to the Patta section of the Taluk office. The junior assistant at the Patta section verifies the documents and forwards the application to the Zonal Deputy Tahsildar. The Zonal Deputy Tahsildar conducts another inspection and the report is again sent back to the Patta section. The junior assistant forwards it to the Tahsildar. The signing authority for Pattas varies according to the cost of the land. The certificate once signed by the concerned authority is issued to the applicant in-hand and thereafter the details are entered in the register. Role of the Village Panchayat: If the land for which the Patta is issued belongs to the Village Panchayat or is an agricultural land then a No Objection Certificate has to be issued by the Village Panchayat President. This is done by conducting a Grama Sabha and a resolution is passed stating that there is no objection for granting the Patta to the concerned persons. 9.1.10. Birth Certificate The birth certificates are also issued by the revenue department with the aid of certain other administrative officers.



Village

Administrative

office

District

Revenue

office

The District Revenue

office, Village

Administrative office

Village

Panchayat

President or the

Government

owned



VAO, RI,

Tahsildar (Taluk

office)

Service delivery mechanism The application form is filled by the citizen and submitted to the Village assistant. He then hands it to the VAO for his approval. It is further forwarded to the RI for inspection. The RI forwards the report to the B1 section of the Taluk Office. The junior assistant verifies and sends the application to the Tahsildar. The Tahsildar scrutinizes the application and gives his approval. The certificate is prepared in the B1 section by the clerk and the signature of the Tahsildar is obtained. The certificate is then handed over to the applicant and the details are noted in the register. The signing authority is the Tahsildar. Note: A new GO has been passed that states that the Panchayat President himself can issue the birth certificate. This would make it easier for the village citizens to obtain these certificates without having to visit the District Revenue Office. Moreover, the Village Panchayat President is aware of the births in the Village and hence is in a better situation to issue certificates. Although the GO has been passed, this is yet to be put in to practice. 9.1.11. Residency/ Domicile Certificate This service is also provided by the revenue department.


Service model

Village

Administrative office

District

Revenue office

The District

Revenue

office,

Village

Administrativ

e office

Village

Panchayat

President or the

VAO, RI,

Tahsildar (Taluk

office)

Government

Owned



Service delivery mechanism Application form is filled by the citizen and given to the Village Assistant for verification. He then forwards it to the VAO for his approval (the Village Panchayat President can also sign on the application instead of the VAO). It is then forwarded to the RI for inspection. The RI sends the report to the A5 section of the Taluk Office. The junior assistant verifies and sends the application to the Tahsildar. The Tahsildar scrutinizes the application and gives his approval. The certificate is prepared by the clerk in the A5 section and the signature of the Tahsildar is obtained. The certificate is then handed over to the applicant and the details are noted in the register. The signing authority is the Tahsildar. At times, if the Tahsildar finds any discrepancy in the documents he can resend the application to the VAO and thereafter the entire process gets repeated. 9.1.12 Death Certificate The birth certificates are also issued by the revenue department with the aid of certain other administrative officers.



Village

Administrative

office

District

Revenue

office

District Revenue

office, Village

Administrative

office

Village Panchayat

President or the VAO,

RI, Tahsildar (Taluk

office)

Government

owned

Service delivery mechanism The application form is filled by the citizen and submitted along with a letter from the Medical Officer where the deceased was declared dead to the Village assistant of the village (the village where the death has occurred). He then hands it to the VAO for his approval. The certificate is prepared in the B1 section by the clerk and the signature of the Tahsildar is obtained based on entry made on the death register at the VAO’s office. The certificate is then handed over to the applicant and the details are noted in the Death register. The signing authority is the Tahsildar. Note: A new GO has been passed that states that the Panchayat President himself can issue the death certificates. This would make it easier for the village citizens to obtain these certificates without having to visit the District Revenue Office. Moreover, the Village Panchayat President is



aware of the deaths happening in the Village and hence is in a better situation to issue certificates. Although the GO has been passed, this is yet to be put in to practice. 9.1.13. Preparation of BPL List The Ministry of Rural Department conducts a below poverty line census at the beginning of each Five year plan with the aid of the Block and Village Panchayats. The BPL list in Tamil Nadu was identified last in 2002 as a part of the Tenth Five year plan.


Service model

No application is

involved. The

questionnaire for the

scoring is circulated

personally from

household to

household.

Village

Panchayat

Village

Panchayat

Block and Village

Panchayats, Gram

Sabha

Government owned



Service delivery mechanism A ‘Score Based Ranking’ of each household to indicate the quality of life was adopted for the BPL census 2002. Both economic and social indicators are taken into account for such a ranking. There are 13 scorable indicators against which a score of 0-4 can be marked for each household and there are some non scorable indicators as well. The BPL survey is executed and monitored by the Block and Village Panchayats. Once the scores of all the households in the village are calculated it is displayed in the village for transparency. If any two households have the same score, then the tie is broken by a Grama Sabha consensus. Once the final list is prepared, it is approved in the Gram Sabha. Once the list is approved, no additions or deletions are made until a subsequent list is prepared. Once the list is prepared, it is used for the identification of the beneficiaries for the various schemes and services in the Gram Sabha. Each person who figures in the BPL list has a unique number assigned against his/her name. This number is used as a reference for persons present in the BPL list. 5.1.14 Signing the applications for pensions under the OAP Scheme (Old age /widow

/handicap /deserted women /destitute /agriculture labourers)



Village

Administrative

office

District

Revenue

office

the District

Revenue office,

Village

Administrative

office, Post

Office

Village Panchayat

president or the VAO,

RI, Tahsildar (Taluk

office)

Government

owned

Service delivery mechanism The application form is filled and submitted at the Village Panchayat office. The Panchayat President's endorsement is obtained. It is then forwarded to the VAO for approval. Once his approval is obtained, it is forwarded to the RI. The RI conducts an enquiry and the report is sent to the OAP section of District Taluk office. The application is scrutinized and forwarded to the Special Tahsildar who performs a spot enquiry. He sanctions the pension and the sanction order is forwarded to the OAP section. The officials at the OAP section prepare the certificate, get the



Special Tahsildar's signature and issue it to the applicant. The applicant then receives the pension every month as a money order from the Post office. 9.1.15. Identification of beneficiaries for Social Welfare Schemes The applicants for the social welfare schemes submit the application at the Block office or directly at the Social Welfare Department at the District. Although the citizens apply directly, the Panchayat Presidents identify the eligible candidates for the various schemes and inform them about the available benefits. They also offer recommendation letter to the beneficiaries.


Delivery tier Delivery channel

Stakeholders involved Service model

Block or District

Social Welfare

Department

District

Social

Welfare

office

District Social

Welfare office

District Social Welfare

Department, Block

Development Office, Village

Panchayat President (not

mandatory)

Government

owned

Service Delivery to Citizens All the services are offered either directly or indirectly by Panchayats in co-ordination with various line departments. There is no external agency involved in the process. No Revenue Sharing Models exist since the entire service is provided by the concerned line department itself through their own field officers. The service model used is government owned and no PPP and BOOT model is available. The applications for the services are sold at the local stores. The certificates issued by the Revenue Department have to be collected by the applicant in-person from the District Revenue Office. In case of monetary benefits from the Social Welfare Department, the payment is done generally in the form of cheques which is handed over to the beneficiary at the Office. In some schemes such as benefit for the girl children and inter-caste marriages, the monetary assistance is given in the form of NSC bonds. Our observations with Respect to Citizen Service Delivery

• Ideally the applications once submitted have to move from one department to the other. But in practice, due to time constraints and the large number of applications, the applicant himself/herself goes from one tier to the other to get the required signatures and approvals.



• Although there are numerous services that are provided to the citizens, the extent of involvement of the Panchayats is quite limited. Most of these services are executed by the line departments and hence the citizen has to make multiple visits to the offices to avail a service. The Panchayats are not delegated enough powers to provide services to the public other than the civic amenities.

• There is lack of convergence at the village level between the line departments and the elected bodies.

• There is inadequate awareness among the citizens as well as the Panchayat officials on the details about the various services provided by the line departments.

• There is no strict adherence to the Service Level Agreements (SLA).

9.2 Initiatives taken by PRI for Citizen Service Delivery

The initiatives taken by the PRI with respect to service delivery is limited. However, they are taking efforts within their jurisdictions in order to make process of service delivery more effective and transparent. The following are the initiatives taken by the PRI, Online Grievance Redressal In order to make the citizen service deliver faster and more efficient, the Government has initiated an Online Petitioning system in order to monitor the public grievances effectively. The manual systems are time consuming as well as not effective when the Administration needs to obtain certain statistical information related to the redressal of Grievances. Although this has been initiated, it is still not being widely used, especially in the rural areas where citizens still travel to the Collectorate on the Grievance Days to submit their petitions in person. Involvement of Panchayat Presidents Few proactive Village Panchayat presidents are inclined to serve the public and provide services. They take the initiatives to inform the citizens about the benefits and assistances offered by the Government. They function as information kiosks guiding the citizens in the process of service delivery. They also sensitize the people on their rights and responsibilities in order to improve the overall service quality. Self Help Groups As a part of its empowerment activities the Govt. of Tamil Nadu has initiated the formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) with the aid of the local bodies. Their role has been envisaged as



implementing agencies/service providers for various Government programs such as Mid-day Meals, National Rural Health Mission, ICDS, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Residential Girls/Boys School, Women Hostel to name a few. The SHGs are given the necessary training and put in charge of the computer centers initiated by the Panchayats. These SHGs are proposed to aid the PRIs in citizen service delivery. However, this initiative is still in the proposal stage and is yet to be implemented. Details of SHGs as on 31-3-2009

Table 9.1: Details about SHGs

No. of SHGs 3,91,311

No. of Group Members 62.93 Lakhs

No. of Rural Groups 2,72,092

No. of Members in Rural SHGs 44,14,895

No. of Urban Groups 1,19,219

No. of Members in Urban SHGs 18,78,106

Total Savings Rs. 2167 Crores

No. of Groups Credit Linked 3,60,160

Total Credit Rs. 5337.96 Crores

Non-Governmental Organisations Help from NGOs is sought by the DRDA so that they can perform at the grassroots level and play a critical role as facilitators in group formation and development. NGOs not only work as the facilitator but also help in training and capacity building of facilitators being used by DRDA. Some NGOs also take up activities such as creation of awareness and information dissemination to the citizens in backward communities regarding the services and the delivery mechanisms. NGOs also conduct training programs for Panchayat presidents and other officials of the local bodies.

9.3 Initiatives taken by the State impacting service delivery to rural populace

The government has taken several steps to streamline the functioning of the Panchayati Raj system and subsequently provide better citizen service delivery. The most significant initiatives brought about by the State were as a result of 3 high level committees,



1 L.C. Jain Committee 2 Ko. Si. Mani Committee 3 M.K. Stalin Committee

The changes brought about by this committee assigned higher powers to the officials of the local bodies by means of which they were able to ensure better service delivery to their citizens. Some of the State initiatives to improve citizen service delivery are as follows, CSC

• The range of services that may be offered through the CSCs include Agriculture, Banking, Education and Training, Telemedicine, Forms downloading, Ticket reservation, Digital photos, DTP work, Web Surfing, photocopy, CD burning, etc.

• The CSCs will be viewed as a last mile distribution point for delivery of end-to-end rural solutions.

• In Villupuram district, there are 496 CSCs have been approved which roughly works out to be 1 CSC for every 3 villages. However, only 16 are functional as of now. The services provided by the CSCs at Villupuram are as follows:



Table 9.2: Services rendered by CSCs at Villupuram

S. No Services Provided

1 Tours & Travels (Ticket bookings, hotel bookings and travel packages)

2 Bill payment (insurance and mobile)

3 Education (material for Engineering, Medicine and MBA)

4 Entertainment (movie ticketing and Zapak)

5 Recharges (easy recharge for mobiles and Sun-direct payment)

6 Microsoft education basic computer course

• With respect to Dindigul, out of 123 CSCs that were initiated, only 15 are functional.

Remaining CSCs are under development. The main obstacle is the topography of certain blocks. Officials are having problems identifying CSC sites at hill stations. The CSCs at Dindigul provide the following services:

Table 9.3: Services rendered by CSCs at Dindigul

S. No Services provided

1 Mobile recharge

2 Max New York Life Insurance

3 Microsoft Education

4 Bus ticketing

5 Railways ticketing

6 LIC premium

7 Air ticket booking



8 Astrology

9 Bharat Matrimony

10 SBI BF

11 DTP works

To be launched shortly

1 BSNL Products

2 ICICI Prudential Life

3 Future Generali

Manu Nidhi Mugaam This is an Escalation matrix for the citizen that is available at the State level. The Manu Nidhi Mugaam is a day when the Chief Minister directly addresses the public and listens to their grievances. This is a Grievance Redressal that happens at the State level. The CM collects all the petitions from the citizens which is then sorted district wise and forwarded to the Collectors of each District. At the Collectorate the petitions are sorted again and sent to the respective Departments. The departments are liable to take action as soon as possible and the district has to send an online report to the state, stating the details of the disposed petitions. This is the final escalation matrix within the State for citizen service delivery. Initiatives by the State IT Department The Tamil Nadu, IT Department has been providing means for efficient and transparent service delivery and information dissemination. The IT Department functions closely with the other Departments in order to speed up the process of service delivery through different service levels. The initiatives taken by the IT department are as follows,

• The Government of Tamil Nadu is setting up the infrastructure needed for e-Governance like the State Wide Area Network and the State Data Centre.

• Service related details are available on the net in bilingual scripts i.e. English and Tamil. • A State Government web site, www.tn.gov.in and a RD specific web site www.tnrd.gov.in

has been created to provide information to the citizens.



• All Government Orders issued by the Secretariat, the Citizen Charters for all departments, other records and data that are of relevance to the public are available on the government websites.

• Applications for certain certificates and services are available online. The citizen can download the forms directly through the internet. However, in the rural areas, citizens even now visit the local stores to obtain these forms.

Training Training is imparted to the elected representatives at the village, block and district levels and the rural development functionaries, NGOs, SHGs and all the others who are involved in rural development. For this purpose, the State government has established the SIRD (State institute of Rural Development) and RIRD (Regional Institute of Rural Development). These institutes offer training in several thrust areas of rural development and capacity building. Special sessions on computer applications are made mandatory in most of the programs.

The Service Delivery Model is completely Government owned with no

involvement of an external agency. Therefore, there are no PPP or Boot

Models for Revenue Sharing (note: CSCs are based on PPP model but

they do not offer G2C services). Although there are numerous services

that are provided to the citizens, the extent of involvement of the

Panchayats is quite limited. As the services are executed by the line

departments, the citizen has to make multiple visits to the line

departments to avail a service. The Panchayats are not delegated

enough powers to provide services to the public other than the civic

utilities. Therefore the initiatives taken by the PRI with respect to

service delivery is limited.

With respect to CSCs, although several CSCs have been approved, only

a fraction of them are functional. These CSCs would be more

beneficial to the public if they provides G2C services, which are

currently not been offered by them. As a result, CSCs are yet to create

an impact on the service delivery mechanism for the rural populace.

Conclusion



10 WAY FORWARD

Our study found that barring a couple of schemes, majority of the schemes (State and Center) as well as services are delivered by the line departments. GOs are released delegating more powers to the Panchayat President. However, the speed with which they will be implemented remains to be seen. We have identified 5 services where the Panchayati Raj Institutions could play a role in service delivery. These services are already provided online through the line departments. However, equipping Panchayat offices with ICT, broadband and trained manpower would involve the Panchayati Raj Institutions in the delivery of these services. This report focuses on the information and services needs assessment carried out in Phase II of the project. Following this phase immediately is the ‘Process Re-engineering Phase’ which would include the documentation of the ‘As-Is’ and ‘To-Be’ reports. The ‘As-Is’ report will capture the current state of the identified G2C services, while the ‘To-Be’ report will focus on re-engineering of those G2C services.

10.1 Services finalized for Process re-engineering

The team identified the list of services based on the needs of the citizens as captured during the Special Gram Sabha meeting. Inputs were also acquired from the meetings with the officials and Panchayati Raj Institutions members at all the three levels.

10.1.1 Existing Services

Below is the list of identified existing services for the study,

Table 10.1: List of Existing Services

S. No Service

1 Civic amenities

2 Utility services

3 Collection of Taxes

4 NREGS Job Card



S. No Service

5 IAY beneficiary list & monitoring

6 TSC

7 RTI

8 Grievances

9 NOC for land Patta

10 Birth Certificate

11 Residence/Domicile Certificate

12 Death Certificate

13 Preparation of BPL List

14 Identification of beneficiaries for pensions (Old

age/widow/handicap/deserted women/ destitutes/

agriculture laborers etc.)

15 Providing recommendation for beneficiaries for Social

Welfare Schemes (2 girl child, death of the head of the

family etc.)

10.1.2 New Services

The below table is the list of 5 new services identified for the study. Most of these services are rendered online by the line departments delivering these services. For instance, issuance of Chitta is made available online by Revenue Department. By equipping PRIs with ICT, broadband and trained manpower, these services can be made accessible to village citizens through the computer in the Panchayat office. Thus, by involving the PRIs in the service delivery, we are making these



services available to the rural citizens at the village level. Hence, these services are referred to as new services. A GO has been issued encouraging Panchayat Presidents to make use of non-conventional energy sources and this has been identified as a new service. Forms for various schemes/services can be made available online and once Village Panchayats are equipped with ICT and broadband, these can be downloaded by village citizens at the Panchayat office. Additionally, convergence with CSCs can be envisaged here in making these forms available online. The following is the list of services based on the inputs from the citizens, Panchayati Raj Institution members and officials,

Table 10.2: List of New Services

S. No Service

1 Information and availability of forms for all schemes/services

2 Identification and elimination of bogus ration cards

3 Registration of job seekers (Employment Exchange Registration).

4 Electoral Rolls

5 Non-conventional energy resources. (windmill, bio-gas, solar)

.



11 ANNEXURE

11.1 List of interviewees

11.1.1 State level

S. No Name of the person Designation Department/Agency

1 Mr. Ashok Vardhan

Shetty

Principal Secretary Rural Development

2 Mr. Gagandeep Singh

Bedi

Commissioner Rural Development

3 Mr. Kumar Jayant Commissioner BC, MBC and Minorities Welfare

4 Mr. Rajaraman Commissioner Public Distribution Systems and

Consumer Protection

department

5 Mr. S. Machendranathan Commissioner Transport

Mr. Muralidaran Deputy Commissioner Public Distribution Systems and

Consumer Protection

department

7 Mr. Abdul Kareem Assistant Commissioner Revenue

8 Mr. Deenadayalan Assistant Commissioner Revenue

9 Mr. N. Sundaramurthy Assistant Commissioner Revenue

10 Mr. Kodandarama Gupta Assistant Commissioner Revenue

11 Mr. Mahabushan Joint Commissioner Transport

12 Mr. Lakshmipathy Joint Director Rural Development

13 Ms. Sheela Deputy Director Public Distribution Systems and

Consumer Protection



S. No Name of the person Designation Department/Agency

department

14 Ms. Vimala Joint Director Social Welfare

15 Mr. Rajamani Assistant Director Rural Development

16 Mr. Mani Assistant Director Health & Family Welfare

17 Mr. Santosh Babu Managing Director ELCOT

18 Mr. Gnanabalan General Manager Tamil Nadu Energy

Development Agency

19 Mr. Madhavan Sr. Business

Development Manager

ELCOT

20 Mr. Selva Raj Agriculture Officer Agriculture

21 Mr. Ravishankar Agriculture Officer Agriculture

22 Mr. Muthuswamy Demographer Health & Family Welfare

23 Dr. Arputharaj Deputy Director SIRD

24 Mr. P. Krishna Prasad State Informatics Officer NIC

25 Mr. Srinivasa Raghavan Senior Technical Officer NIC

26 Mr. Jayabalan Scientist-D NIC

27 Mr. Vidyasankar Scientist-D NIC

28 Mr. Parthasarathy Scientist-D NIC

29 Mr. Muthukrishnan Scientist-C NIC



11.1.2 Villupuram district

S. No Level Name of the person Designation Department/Agency

1 District Dr.Palanisamy Collector District Final Workshop

2 District Mr. Kathiravan District Revenue

Officer and Collector-

in-charge for July,

2009

Revenue Department

3 District Mr. Mahendran Project Officer DRDA

4 District Mr. Kumar Special District

Collector (SDC)

(SSS)

Revenue Department

5 District Mr. Harikrishnan Assistant Director Panchayat

6 District Mr. Ramachandran Assistant Project

Officer

DRDA

7 District Ms. Prabhavati District Director ICDS

8 District Mr. Ramalingam Joint Director Agriculture

9 District Dr. K.Krishna Raj Deputy Director Health Services

10 District Dr. P.Durairajan Regional Joint

Director (RJD), In-

charge

Animal Husbandry

11 District Ms. Charlotte Thangam Assistant Director KVIC

12 District Mr. Rajamani Assistant Director Horticulture

13 District Mr. P.Paneerselvam District CEO Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

(SSA)




14 District Mr. Sundaramurthy District Officer THADCO

15 District Ms. Amirthagowri District Social

Welfare Officer

Social Welfare

16 District Mr. Naresh CEO Education

17 District Mr. Manoharan PA to Collector Civil Supplies

18 District Mr. Balasubramanium Officer MPLAD

19 District Mr. F.R.I.M. Shah District Forest Officer Forests

20 District Mr. Ravichandran Superintendent Rural Development

21 District Mr. Amal Raj SP-Villupuram Police

22 District Ms. Nirmalatha Superintendent

Engineer

EB

23 District Mr. Balakumar Executive Engineer TWAD

24 District Ms. Vasundhara Devi District Panchayat

Chairman

District Panchayat

25 District Mr. K.A. Jeyachandran Secretary District Panchayat

26 District Mr. Vetrivel Assistant NREGS

27 District Mr. Vardhana Sudhan Jr. Assistant District Library Office

28 District Mr. Pandian Librarian District Library Office

29 District Mr. Vinoth Kanna Area Sales Manager CSC, 3i Infotech

30 Block Mr. Periasami BDO, Village

Panchayat

-




31 Block Mr. Gnanasekaran BDO Village

Panchayat

-

32 Block Dr. M Geetha Deputy Director Health Services

33 Block Mr. Anbu AEE PWD, Water Resources

34 Block Mr. Anbarasan Taluk Officer Revenue Department

35 Block Mr.Sethuraman Special Tahsildar Social Security Scheme

36 Block Mr. Govindsamy AEO, Kallakurichi Education

37 Block Ms. Elizabeth Sheela Community

Development Project

Officer

ICDS

38 Block Ms. Poongol Ammal Block Officer ICDS

39 Block Mr. Udayasuriyan MLA -

40 Block Mr. Venkatachalam PU Chairman -

41 Block Mr. Suresh and Mr.

Muthuraman

CSC franchisee -

42 Block Mr. P.Samidurai Panchayat President -

43 Village Ms. Indragandhi

Subhash

Panchayat President -

44 Village Mr. Ulagasevapuri VAO Revenue Department

45 Village Mr. Raju Panchayat President -

46 Village - - Water Users

Association

47 Village Mr. Rajasekaran Revenue Inspector Revenue Department




48 Village - Anganwadi organizer

and Anganwadi

Helper

ICDS

49 Village - Village Health Nurse Health Services



11.1.3 Dindigul District

Sr. No Level Name of the person Designation Department/Agency

1 District Mr. Vallalar Collector Dindigul

District Mr. Arun Mani PO DRDA

2 District Mr. Gunasekaran AD Panchayat DRDA

3 District Mr. Subbaiah PAPD Rural Development

5 District Mr. Renganathan APO Magalir

Thittam

DRDA

6 District AD Agriculture

8 District Mrs. Ponammal Tahsildar Election

District Mr. Vela Sundaram Deputy Tahsildar Election

9 District Mrs. Ngyanaguru District Officer Social Welfare

10 District Superintendent Rehabilitation

11 District Mr. Jagadish Kumar Deputy Director Health & Family

Welfare

12 District Mr. Devendran Tahsildar Revenue

13 District Mr. Thomas Pritto Tahsildar Social Security

Scheme

14 District Mr.Thyagarajan Branch Officer ElCOT

15 District Mr. Suresh TN- SWAN

Incharge

ElCOT

17 District Mr. Srinivasan Officer Rural Development

18 District Mr.Shamsudeen Assistant Labour




Commissioner

19 District Mr. Balasubramanium Executive Officer Town Panchayat

20 District Mr.Sethuraman Executive Officer

– Admin

Town Panchayat

21 Block Mr. Durairaj BDO -VP (

Athoor)

Rural Development

22 Block Mr. Navaneetha

Krishnan

BDO -BP (

Athoor)

Rural Development

23 Block Mr. Solaiappan Assistant

Engineer

Rural Development

24 Block Mr. Balakrishnan BDO

(Vedasandur)

Rural Development

25 Block ABDO

(Vedasandur)

Rural Development

26 Village Mr. Balakrishnan Village

Panchayat

President –

Sitharevu

Rural Development

27 Village Mrs.Vasantha Village

Panchayat

President –

Balakrishnapura

m

Rural Development

28 Village Mr. Ramakrishnan Village

Panchayat

President -

Nagampatti

Rural Development

29 Village Mr. Selva Ganesh Village

Panchayat

President –

Chettinayakarpatt

Rural Development




i

30 Village Mrs. N.Mahalakshmi Village

Panchayat

President -

Kovakkapatti

Rural Development

31 Village Mrs. Karthikeyeeni Village Health

Nurse –

Balakrishnapura

m

Health & Family

Welfare

32 Village Assistant -

Nagampatti

Rural Development

33 Village Mr. Srinivasan Assistant –

Balakrishnapura

m

Rural Development

11.2 Note on Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS)

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) introduced and implemented the Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS) in 2005-06. The scheme aims at encouraging the States for adequately empowering the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and putting in place arrangements for bringing about accountability of the PRIs. Performance of the States in these aspects is measured through a Devolution Index (DI). Indicators for ‘Finances’ include the arrangements for maintenance of accounts, audit etc. The 4 fundamental constitutional requirements that form the criteria for being considered for this scheme are as follows:

1. Establishment of State Election Commission. 2. Holding of elections to the PRIs. 3. Setting up State Finance Commission. 4. Constitution of the District Planning Committees (DPCs).



The indicators for the DI aim at assessing the state of devolution in respect of the 3Fs, namely, Functions, Finances and Functionaries by the respective States to the PRIs. In all, there are 34 indicators, of which 5 relate to Functions, 15 relate to Finances and 14 to Functionaries. Below is the list of the indicators for Devolution Index Survey 2008-09

Table 11.2 Devolution Survey 2008-09 Functions Finances Functionaries

1. De facto

transfer of 29

functions listed

in 11th

Schedule.

2. Detailed Activity

Mapping

conducted for

these 29

functions.

3. Whether DPC is

involved in the

preparation of

District Plan?

4. Are GP

implementing

the major

Flagship

Programmes?

5. Are GP fully

empowered to

prepare plans

for expenditure?

6. Authorisation of PRIs to

collect taxes, duties, tolls

etc.

7. PRIs own revenue as % of

PRIs expenditure.

8. Timely action on latest

SFC’s major

recommendations.

9. Percentage of funds

devolved to PRIs that are

untied (Plan).

10. Percentage of funds

devolved to PRIs that are

untied (Non-plan).

11. Promptness with which

Twelfth Finance Commission

Funds transferred to PRIs.

12. Allocation of funds to PRIs

based on apportionment

formula.

13. Are GP fully empowered to

sanction expenditure?

14. Whether there is a separate

budget line for PRIs in the

State Budget for 2007-08?

15. Devolution of finances

21. Expert Institutions and entities

to support PRIs for the

preparation of their Annual

Plans specified.

22. Expert institutions and entities

to support capacity building/

training of elected officials of

PRIs specified.

23. Amount of money provided for

the capacity building/ training

of elected officials of PRIs.

24. Amount of money provided for

the capacity building/training of

appointed officials of PRIs.

25. Annual Report for last fiscal

year released.

26. Functionary wise accountability

to PRIs: GP.


to PRIs: IP.


to PRIs: DP.

29. Average days of training of

Functionaries: Elected

Officials; GP




Functions Finances Functionaries

corresponds to functions?

16. Percentage of PRIs whose

accounts are audited (GP).


accounts are audited (BP).


accounts are audited (DP).

19. Specify the registers in

which the accounts of GP

are updated.

20. Do any funds directly go to

the GP with respect the

functions?

Functionaries: Appointed

Officials; GP



Officials; IP



Officials; IP



Officials; DP



Officials; DP



11.3 Minutes of key meetings held 11.3.1 Meeting with Principal Secretary RD held on 01-July-2009

Minutes of the Meeting with Principal Secretary, Rural Development

Objective: To give an overview of e-PRI project and to seek the cooperation throughout the project duration. Date: 01.07.2009 Location: Secretariat, Chennai

Scheduled Time Actual Time Start Stop Total Hours Start Stop Total

Time

03:30 PM 04.30 PM 05:30 PM 1:00 Attendees 1 Mr. Ashok Vardhan Shetty, Principal Secretary, Rural Development 2 Mr. Jeyabalan, SIO-NIC, Chennai 3 Mr. Srinivasa Raghavan, SIO-NIC, Chennai 4 Mr. R.Sreeram, KPMG 5 Ms. Abhiramalakshmi Karthikeyan, KPMG

Handouts/ Documentation Shared

� Policy note of department. � Annual reports of the department.

Discussed Items

1. Overview and scope of the workshop with respect to e-PRI mission mode project

2. Discussion on worthiness of the project

3. History of rural development ministry in the state

4. Various initiatives already undertaken by the state with respect to empowering PRIs

5. Discussion on 3 tier structure, 73rd amendment and its downsides

Minutes of Meeting

1.

Huge costs incurred in training and maintaining ICT enabled centres - TamilNadu (TN) has smaller village Panchayats and number of village Panchayats is large (12000 odd compared to Kerala’s large village (half of a TN block in size and 995 villages) Hiring someone to maintain ICT centre or do data entry services would incur huge salaries (average of Rs. 6000 pm * 12000 villages * 12 months = 86 crore



approx). Add to it the power and water supply charges and there would be little of funds left for other activities, please bear this in mind when making any recommendation Gujarat model of outsourcing CSCs to entrepreneurs and a revenue sharing mechanism will cause administrative and legal hassles. Just before us, a group of people who were hired on contract to maintain NREGS centres threatened to go to court as they were not being absorbed into the government jobs

2.

Difficult to train people - NREGS scheme has been implemented, however ELCOT has installed Linux on machines and it’s not easy training people to use Linux Literacy rates are pretty poor in rural areas, difficult imagining villagers becoming net savvy

3.

Different state dynamics - Blocks and GPs are highly empowered in TN while district local body has been kept weak. This is because of the historical two political party rivalry in TN. Consider a situation wherein district bodies are run by opposition party, it will create problem in implementing initiatives the incumbent party at the state headquarters is trying to implement On the other hand, in Karnataka, block level has no power. States across the country feel that one tier is toothless and want to get rid of the weaker tier. Thus, it becomes difficult to come up with a common roadmap to take IT to grass root levels Steps taken to ensure gram Panchayat is one single body and that there are no committees like forest committee, etc. Schemes similar to mid-day meal were started way back in 1950s under Kamaraj’s rule. Thus, we would not want to reinvent the wheel as far as schemes are concerned.

4.

Services delivered by line departments - During Kamaraj times in 1950s, agriculture, and other functions were under Rural development ministry. The concerned personnel were working under the Panchayat chairman. However, in MGR’s rule in late 70s, the Panchayat elections were put on hold for some political reasons and the officials handling agriculture, etc. got vexed of working under Panchayat chairman who were not proficient enough or knowledgeable enough and started walking away. Thus, all the functions got separated and came under the control of line departments such as agriculture which have been providing the relevant services by themselves and not through local bodies. It doesn’t look possible to bring the status quo to what it was in Kamaraj’s times There are local body elected officials who invariably have little or no idea about



functions like agriculture, animal husbandry, IT, etc. Thus, it is not always right to say that we can devolve all functions to Panchayat level and efficiency will soar. TN has implemented schemes and services for rural population in its own ways (as mentioned previously about blocks and villages being powerful bodies). This is evident in the fact that TN has ranked consistently inside top 4 in the last 3 years on local bodies’ empowerment and devolution of powers. There are civic schemes where IT can be used. However, being such small villages area wise, it’s easier for people to go to the president’s doorstep and put a complaint for streetlight not working rather than going to a computer centre and logging in an online complaint. Panchayat president can also issue birth certificates. A larger Panchayat like in Kerala, West Bengal or Karnataka may find such IT intervention more beneficial Automating fund flow for various Panchayat requests also have a political angle, some local body members having more political clout will get funds disbursed faster and may get funding from multiple schemes. Whenever there are no clear processes, it becomes difficult to automate processes. It is not going to be a great idea trying to call these line department guys for a workshop as no one would be interested in attending it. More inputs can be got at the district level on specific schemes and what role PRIs can possibly play in them.

Follow up Action Items

Responsibility Target Date Status

1 NA

Action Items Owner Due Date Requirement

1



11.3.2 Meeting with SIRD Faculty on 03- July-2009

Minutes of the Meeting of meeting with SIRD faculty

Objective: To give an overview of e-PRI project and to know more about the PRI structure in the state

Date: 03.07.2009 Location: SIRD. Maraimalai Nagar, Chennai


Time

10.00 10.0 2.00 PM 4:00 Attendees 1 Dr. Arputha Raj, SIRD faculty 2 Mr. Gautam Sinha, KPMG 3 Ms. Abhiramalakshmi Karthikeyan, KPMG 4 Mr. R.Sreeram, KPMG


� SIRD Calendar � SIRD schedule of programmes for the year

Discussed Items

1. Overview and scope of the workshop with respect to e-PRI mission mode project

2. Clientele of SIRD and various programmes offered to them

3. Structure of PRIs and corresponding line department

4. Inputs on challenges faced by elected members.

5. Structure of SIRD

Minutes of Meeting

1.

Emphasis on State Autonomy - Panchayat is state subject; centre should not interfere, this is not the stand of just Principal Secretary or any individual, but that of the entire state; even CM emphasized on this during his birthday speech last month 3 Tier structure does not suit Tamil Nadu; state in process of deciding on 2 or 3 tier structure

2. Structure of Rural Institutes of development - NIRD, headquartered in Hyderabad, SIRD in Chennai and 5 RIRDs across the state



3.

Structure of Panchayat Raj Institutions in State - Suggestion to start from Panchayats level as Panchayats would always be interacting with line department whereas line departments would not be actively involved / coordinate with what all activities Panchayat(s) does. They only implement, not decide Stalin committee in 2006 after Ko.Si Mani committee in 1997, L.C.Jain Committee in 1996, to study the pulse; initiated PRI changes Rs. 3 crore annually for training of PRI and Rs. 3.5 crore for infrastructure at PRIs provided to SIRD.

4.

Suggestions on Panchayats to visit in districts - K.Keeranur, Odanchatram block in Dindigul and Jakkampettai in Tindivanam block in Villupuram as good Panchayats for field study as they have won the Uthamar Gandhi awards; Village Presidents identified and contact numbers received for further communication with them.

5.

Best practices in Panchayats and awards instituted - – State initiatives Odanthurai Panchayat (Mettupalayam block) in Coimbatore district has developed its own software for tax calculations called e-tax, it has built windmills and sell power to TNEB to repay loan taken for building windmills (a national model, Non conventional secretary at centre visits this Panchayat often) Another Panchayat in Theni also developed similar software Michaelpattanam visited by Bill Clinton Kaipidi Arisi (handful of rice), similar to grain bank scheme in Madhya Pradesh has been brought about in K.Keeranur, Dindigul by Panchayat president Manimegalai award for best performing self help groups Corporate Social responsibility for corporate body involved with PRIs Through ‘Vaazhndhu Kaatuvom’ scheme (let’s live), lot of improvement in standards of living of destitute people brought about. A poor SC girl from a Panchayat in Cuddalore district is now an air hostess in JET airways AGAMT scheme to provide basic amenities at all village Panchayats (water body, library, sports ground, burial ground and others). Rs. 20 lakh fund given to identified backward villages of which Rs. 15 lakh is earmarked for basic amenities while Rs. 5 lakh can be used by villages for their specific needs.

6.

SIRD programs and Clientele - Panchayat Union chairperson and above are trained in SIRD; Village Panchayat ward members and presidents trained in RIRDs. Some promising Panchayats’ presidents are picked and trained for special programmes such as NREGS, BRGF (6 districts including Villupuram and Dindigul) and RGSY



Trainers’ training program also conducted on regular basis RGSY – 75% centre funded, 25% state funded (Rs. 6.52 cr) BRGF – Rs. 36 crore budget for 5 years; president from across districts act as trainers; tie-up with ELCOT for ICT training to village Panchayats, clerks for office applications and web training Other clientele include officials from line department, NGO officers (over the 1.4 lakh office members of PRIs).

7. Structure at district Panchayat - Collector as chairperson, PO as implementing officer, and APO.

8. Structure at district official level - Collector, AD, Panchayat and AD, audit, PA (PD).

9. Assessment of training programme - Through feedback from the candidates and also some of institute’s own inputs, curriculum continuously revised.

10.

Planning and fund flow - Planning process is done at state Gram Sabha resolutions look more like wish list as members ask for anything maybe thinking just because they have voted someone as president he should be able to deliver whatever they ask. So it becomes practically difficult to do planning at Panchayat level for similar reasons No organic link exists between the 3 tiers following 73rd amendment, so same request (e.g. for road to a village) may come from all 3 levels to the same MP asking him to disburse funds for that work Funds are directed through AD, Panchayat to village Panchayat.

11.

Monitoring - AD Panchayat audit and social audit are critical in monitoring Plans to have a 24X7 helpline to help citizens get information on how to get some process done such as filing a complaint against a Panchayat president Recently 12 Panchayat presidents were sacked in Villupuram district, as per surprise visits or audit conducted Also, there is a state monitoring committee which monitors fund flow. (There could be political interference in between the channel of funds flow from MLA to village Panchayat president).

12. Future projects - Satellite studio for conducting training remotely, infrastructure allotted for it 24X7 helpline





1 NA


1



11.3.3 Meeting with Commissioner of Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection Meeting with Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department

Objective: To obtain inputs on the involvement of PRI in the planning, execution and monitoring of scheme / services offered by the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department

Date: 12.08.2009 Location Ezhilagam , Chennai


Time

1.00 PM 1.00 PM 2.00 PM 1 Hr Attendees

1. Mr. K. Rajaraman IAS Commissioner 2. Muralidaran , Deputy Commissioner 3. Sheela , Deputy Director 4. Abhiramalakshmi , KPMG 5. Gautham Sinha, KPMG 6. Vidyashankar, NIC


None

Discussed Items

1 The extent of PRI involvement in the schemes and services offered by the department.

Minutes of Meeting

1.

Fair price shops are run by cooperatives and TN civil supplies Corporation. Majority of the Fair price shops are run by the cooperatives in the state of TN. There are around 500 – 600 Self Help groups that have obtained licenses and are running fair price shops in TN.

2. Throughout TN there are around 3000 fair price shops. TN Civil Supplies Corporation acts as a wholesaler. Runs around 1000 fair price shops in Tamil Nadu.

3. There are less than 10 fair shops in rural areas. However there are 6451 part time shops operating at rural areas and 11 shops at hilly areas.

4. Ration cards – 231 Taluk officers are given the responsibility of issuing ration



cards. Eligibility criteria – permanent resident of their locality , should not be enrolled in any other card. The card is issued with the closest Fair price shop in that locality.

5.

Role of Panchayats � GO has been issued authorizing the village Panchayat president to run fair

price shops in their Panchayat � Go has been issued authorizing the village Panchayat president to perform

monitoring and supervision over the functioning of the fair price shops

6. In spite of GOs being issued, no Panchayat president has so far obtained license for running fair price shops. Not may Panchayat presidents perform monitoring over malpractices at fair price shops.

7.

Panchayat presidents do not show interest in running fair price shops since it may lead to increased responsibilities and any malfunction would immediately reflect in public wrath. Besides most Panchayat presidents lack the expertise to run fair price shops

8.

The Panchayats can provide assistance in the following : � Intimate the public on issue of commodities � Supervise the distribution of commodities � Maintain information on cards allotted, commodities available and monthly

allotment � Maintain stock board � Access the network of TN civil supply agency with TN commodities � Identify AAY scheme, Anapoorna scheme and OAP beneficiaries � Identify what commodities would be applicable to families (w.r.t. to type of

ration card) � Publish issue prices � Inspect corruption issues � Maintain and access database on the details of family cards

9.

Public grievance is held for every Taluk on a monthly basis in the presence of the District Collector. Notification is sent by the collector for this grievance session 10 days in advance. Change request are handled on the spot. Issue of new cards is processed within 30 days ( in case of regular submission of application , 60 days is the processing time)

10. The Taluk supply office is the competent authority to issue ration cards. No money is collected at the time of application submission , during delivery of



card Rs 5 is paid by the public.



1 NA

Action Items

Owner Due Date Requirement

1 NA



11.3.4 Meeting with Revenue Department on 11- August-2009

Meeting with Revenue Department Objective: To obtain inputs on the involvement of PRI in the planning, execution and monitoring of scheme / services offered by the Revenue department. Date: 11.08.2009 Location: Ezhilagam , Chennai

Scheduled Time Actual Time Start Stop Total Hours Start Stop Total Time 2.00 PM 2.30 PM 4.00 PM 1 Hr and 30

Minutes Attendees 1 Abdul Kareem, Assistant Commissioner 1 2 Deenadayalan Assistant Commissioner 2 3 N. Sundaramurthy Assistant Commissioner 3 4 Kodandarama Gupta Assistant Commissioner 4 5 Abhiramalakshmi , KPMG 6 Gautham Sinha, KPMG 7 Parthasarathy, NIC 8 Jayabalan, NIC Handouts/ Documentation Shared

None

Discussed Items 1

.

The extent of PRI involvement in the schemes and services offered by the department.

Minutes of Meeting

1 The department has its own officers up to the village level to carry out its functions. The village administrative officer is the village level officer of the Revenue department.

2 The PRI will be able to help the department only is application dispersal and submission. They lack the competence act on behalf of the VAO

3 GO has been passed authorizing the Panchayat president to issue birth and death certificates, identify OAP, widow and destitute pension scheme beneficiaries.

4 The Panchayat presidents are yet to receive adequate training on issuing of birth / death certificate and hence are not performing the same.



5 The PRI may issue applications for all certificates and identify beneficiaries for OAP, widow and destitute pension schemes.

6 Additionally the PRI may involve them in issuing Voters ID card applications, Form 6/7/8, Jamabandhi Requests, electoral rolls correction.

7 For the entire service to be made more effective even the VAO and Taluk office can be supplied with additional IT infrastructure through this scheme

8

A major challenge in automating the services envisaged is that uploading of supporting documents would be tedious and would require additional space. This issue needs to be taken into consideration while proposing to automate services.

Follow up Action Items Responsibility Target Date Status

1 NA

Action Items Owner Due Date Requirement NA



11.3.5 Villupuram District Workshop held on 30-July-2009

Meeting: District Workshop

Objective: Feedback from line officials and elected representatives on strengthening PRIs

Date: 30.07.2009 Location: Meeting Hall, Collectorate


Time 10:30 PM 2:00 PM 3:30

Hrs Attendees 1 Mr. C. Kathiravan, Collector in-charge and DRO 2 Mr. K.A.Jeyachandran, Secretary, District Planning Cell 3 Ms. Vasundhara Devi, District Panchayat Chairman 4 Mr. Ramchandran, APO 5 Ms. Shanti Devi, DIO, NIC 6 District and Block Line officials 7 PU chairman, Councillors and other PU level members 8 Mr. Kris Dev, NGO 9 Mr. Nilesh Gauda, KPMG 10 Mr. R.Sreeram, KPMG 11 Ms. Shweta Shivangi, KPMG Handouts/ Documentation Shared 1 Filled proforma of different central schemes and amount spent on them 2 Feedback form 3 Write-up on the project 4 Slides handout 5 Minutes of Meeting 6 Attendance Sheet 7 Video CD covering the entire proceedings Discussed Items

1 Opinions on schemes and services by PU members and line officials.

2 Details about the reservoirs, tanks and distribution mechanism.

3 Details related to the Water Users Association.

Minutes of Meeting



1

The proceedings started with the Collector giving an introduction about the purpose of the meeting. He mentioned that the project is a capsule module based on suggestions from the elected representatives. The District Panchayat Chairman set the agenda for the elected representatives. She mentioned that no computer training was extended to the elected representatives. She suggested that welfare schemes of the government should benefit the citizens.

2

A PowerPoint presentation was made by the team members on the ePRI project. This presentation covered topics such as the objectives of the project, various phases, meetings with Line Departments, Schemes and Services and finally the expectations and suggestions.

3 The team also made a presentation capturing the snapshots of various sites as part of our study of schemes and services such as IAY, NREGS, SSA, Grievance Day, Anganwadi and water irrigation.

4 Thereafter, the District Panchayat Chairman invited each of the Panchayat Union Chairmen to present their views on the implementation of the Panchayat Raj Institutions in their councils.

5

Shri. Venkatachallam, PU Chairman, Kallakurichi was the first to speak. He said that the 3-tier system (District-Block-Gram) is not working satisfactorily. In reality there is only a single tier- the Panchayat (Gram) tier as all funds are devolved to the Panchayat directly. There is no role for Panchayat Union Council and the District Council. All the powers are vested with the Village Panchayat President and Vice-President directly. The Panchayat Clerk is appointed by the Panchayat President. He further mentioned that there are problems in implementation of NREGS and conflict of interests exist between elected representatives and other contenders. There is shortage of manpower to operate the computers. In his opinion, the Panchayat Clerk and Makkal Nala Palialar (MNP) (Overseer) should not report to the Panchayat President. Instead s/he should report to the VAO/BDO. He also suggested using laptops and handheld devices for data entry and attendance tracking at sites. He mentioned that none of the officials participate in the Panchayat Union meetings. Hence, no collective meetings are held with the participation of all the parties involved. Resolutions are directly made by the Panchayat President and attested by the Ward Members.

6

Next to speak was Smt. Ratna Ganapathy, Panchayat Union Chairman, Gingee. She mentioned that adequate quantity and proper quality of food such as eggs and chana were not being served to the kids in Anganwadis. Additionally, the kitchens need to be upgraded to have big cookers and gas



supply. The buildings also need to be adequately ventilated. She mentioned that there are no cheque-signing powers conferred upon the PU chairman and that the BDO should be joint signatory of cheques related to Anganwadis and noon meal centers. This would avoid swindling of money. She suggested that NREGS payments should be made directly to the beneficiaries and smart cards could be used to withdraw money from the ATMs. She suggested a separate fund for renewal of old and dilapidated houses. There must be a system to link the Village Panchayat with Union Panchayat and further in turn with the District Panchayat for efficient functioning of the 3-Tier system. Any elected member should be able to access the accounts and complaints/petitions through the use of proper software/application/portal. This was unanimously seconded by the elected members at the District and Union level. She emphasized on transparent filing of accounts and a monthly review between Panchayat President and BDO.

7

Mr. Kalpattu Raja, PU Chairman, Kannai, said that a notice period of 1 week is given for District Panchayat and Panchayat Union meetings. But no prior notice is given for Village Panchayat meetings. The SHG members should compulsorily be asked to attend such meetings. Regarding NREGS, hardly 10% long term benefit is accrued to the citizens by way of creation of assets. Deepening the same ponds repeatedly does not serve any purpose. Laborers demand payment without doing actual work. No Adi Dravidar representative is present at the time of disbursement of the payments. Invariably, the disbursements take place at the Panchayat President’s residence after 5 PM. The elected representatives should be involved in the supervisory roles of NREGS projects. Implementation should be done by officials as they are answerable to any failures. The BPL list is not transparent as Panchayat President is involved in the preparation of this list. IAY houses are allotted to relatives of Panchayat President. Mr. Raja suggested that funds for IAY can be split into a specific ratio and distributed accordingly to DP, PU and GP to guarantee transparency. This would also ensure that the poorest of poor are able to reap the benefits of this scheme. He added that construction of SSA schools should be done by PWD and not through VEC. Elected representatives should compulsorily visit Anganwadis.

8 The District representative from Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) shared financial and implementation-related details about the



National Drinking Water Supply.

9

The PU chairman from Kallakurichi mentioned that NREGS faces a lot of hurdles. The loser in a Panchayat election wants to disrupt the implementation of the scheme. He was of the opinion that NREGS wages should not be disbursed by Village Presidents. Instead, it should be handed over to the workers through ATMs only. The villagers who do not get the stipulated Rs. 80 per day wage complain about money being swindled by the Panchayat President. This change would bring in transparency in wage payment process. He mentioned that earlier there was good coordination between the Panchayat President and the PU chairman. However, this is not happening presently. He also emphasized on PU Members being made part of the NREGS overseeing committee with respect to selection of works and monitoring. He further mentioned that the NMR overseeing committee should be done by an independent clerk. The Panchayat Clerk and the Makkal Nala Paniyalar (who get salary from the President) should not be part of this committee as these people can be subjected to pressure from the Presidents to get their personal favors done in the recruitment of laborers. With respect to electricity, he mentioned that the electricity service is poor in the Panchayats. Also the strength of the service personnel team should be augmented. With respect to SSA, he suggested that contractors should be hired to build schools with SSA funds. These contractors would ensure timely construction and better quality.

10

The PU Chairman from Mugaiyur suggested that there should be some BDO control in the implementation of NREGS scheme. He said that NREGS work is being forced to be done in the Panchayats where there are no facilities for getting supply channels. The PHC workers, whose original responsibility was to clean PHCs, were needlessly pulled into NREGS work. He also said that there could be issues in NREGS implementation due to the differences in opinion of the Panchayat President and Vice-President. In such cases, where there is disruption of work, the PU Member should be allowed to oversee the work. He suggested that a portal could be set up which would continuously update details of works and funds spent on various schemes.

11

The Olakkur PU Chairman stated that as per the TN Panchayats Act, primary duties of village Panchayat President are ensuring facilities like street lights, drinking water and roads. There are problems faced by a village hamlet in the Panchayat where the villagers voted for the opposition party in the elections.



Consequentially they are being neglected and this situation should be corrected.

12

The Koliyanur PU Chairman highlighted the shortage of doctors in PHCs. Physiotherapists are not getting enough jobs and as such Pysiotherapy is losing its value. She also highlighted the shortage of teachers in SSA schools and suggested raising their strength.

13

Mr. Paneerselvam, CEO, SSA mentioned that a maintenance grant of Rs. 20000 is to be sanctioned towards installing TVs and computers in SSA schools. Mr. Suryanarayanan, Assistant Officer, SSA also added that steps have been taken to switch from Linux to Windows OS at SSA middle schools. He added that as per MHRD committee, small funds for construction are not supposed to be given to PWD and should be rather given only to the Panchayats. He said the use of computers and training to teachers is being enhanced. Presently, 2 training program covering 20 teachers each for 10 days is being regularly organized. Satellite Interactive Terminal Training using broadband is being tried out in a few schools and is proposed to be extended to all schools. 5 Laptops have been provided to secondary schools. But these are not being used as they are Linux based and not Windows-based. Currently, sufficient training in Linux OS is not being offered. Village level education must be overseen by Village Education Committee. Similarly Block level education should be overseen by Panchayat Union. Payment of electricity charges for the computers in schools has become a bone of contention in some schools. Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is making the payments. But in some schools it has not been paid and the arrears are substantial. This needs a one time solution. It has been decided that in future the AEO will pay the electricity bills to avoid delays / cuts.

14

In response to the question raised by the Mugaiyur PU Chairman on not having electricity in villages, the CEO, SSA mentioned that Parents Teachers Association (PTA) usually pays these EB bills for high schools. However, for primary schools, there are issues due to ineffective PTAs who are yet to pay the bills. He mentioned that the government has come forward to pay the bill arrears. For issues related to line disconnections, process is being set for collecting funds from AO after paying the necessary deposits. In reply to the question raised by Kallakurichi PU Chairman on why PU Members get only the maintenance portion while construction work is done by the Panchayats, he said, that it was done with the good intention of involving citizens. However, it has not been hugely successful.



15

The District Officer, ICDS, Smt. Prabhavati said that through the possible use of computers, she can get real time details about toilets, food stock etc. This would help her to focus on Anganwadis which need attention. She also added that the usage of MPLADS and MLACDS funds for Anganwadis can also be monitored using computers. TNSWAN should be used for integrating government and citizens with suitable software. All petitions should be filed online using TNSWAN from service centers. When rural infrastructure improves, this system would get smoothly integrated. Anganwadi workers maintaining crucial survey data about the population for the last several years should be motivated by providing them funds to perform better. The welfare of children, women, widows and destitutes should be monitored by a Panchayat Welfare Committee.

16

The BDO, Chinnasalem was of the view that there should be a separate BDO for NREGS. This is because presently the BDOs are already over burdened with several schemes and as such are not able to focus enough on monitoring the NREGS works.

17

Mr. Rajamani, AD, Horticulture, said that the inputs of farmers should be taken in to consideration while giving them subsidy for crops. Computers with TNSWAN are available up to block level. Space constraints and insufficient training are the bottlenecks. Computers can be used for handling and tracking grievances.

18

Most of the meeting attendees were of the opinion that NREGS should expand beyond channel deepening to include material work as mentioned in the National Act. The APO stated that if material works are allowed, DRDA can take up the task of upgrading the Anganwadis.

19

Some of the responses by the BDO and DRDA were as follows, NREGS has shifted from "Demand oriented job" to "Target oriented job". This is not good as there is pressure to assign more jobs to create records. Only one work per village at a time should be taken up. Due to high volume of seasonal job seekers, Measurement Book (M Book) cannot be maintained properly. NREGS should have a separate BDO and regular BDO should not be asked to do NREGS as it is a full time job by itself. NREGS hampers agriculture labour. Hence agriculture work should get priority over NREGS. NREGS should also include repair works of Anganwadi buildings.





1 None.


1 None.



11.3.6 Villupuram Gram Sabha held on 4th August 2009

Meeting: Special Gram Sabha Meeting.

Objective: To study the role of Panchayat and get feedback from the citizens on the services rendered by the various line departments through a citizen-line officials face-to-face interaction.

Date: 4.08.2009 Location: Neelamanagalam Panchayat School, Kallakurichi


Time 9:30 AM 01:30 PM 4:00 Attendees OFFICIALS 1 Mr. Gyanashekaran P, Panchayat Union Commissioner and BDO. 2 Mr. M. Periyasamy, BDO, Village. 3 Mr. P. Anbazhagan, Deputy Taluk Officer, Kallakurichi 4 Mr. R. Govardhanan, Revenue Inspector, Kallakurichi 5 Mr. N. Panneerselvam, VAO, Neelamangalam 6 Smt. Prabhavati, DD, ICDS 7 Smt. V. Ananda Sheela, Child Development Officer, Kallakurichi 8 Smt. K. Resamal, Child Development Officer, Kandamangalam 9 Smt. S. Vijayalakshmi, Child Development Officer, Kallakurichi 10 Mr. Arunagiri, AE, PWD (Water Resources) 11 Mr. P. Jayaprakash, AE, TWAD 12 Mr. Lakshmanan, AE, TWAD 13 Mr. N. Venkatachallam, AE, TWAD 14 Mr. S. Suppu Raju, AE, Horticulture, Kallakurichi 15 Dr. G. Periyasamy, B.V.Sc, AE, Animal Husbandry 16 Mr. P. Govindasamy, AEEO (Education), Kallakurichi 17 Mr. Annamalai, Supervisor, SSA (Block Resource Center- Kallakurichi) 18 Mr. V. Sundararaj, Forest Ranger, Kallakurichi 19 Mr. K. Palanisamy, Forester, Kallakurichi 20 Mr. S. Prasanna, JE, TNEB, Biragabur 21 Mr. N. Punnurasan, AD, Agriculture



22 Mr. B. Ramadas, AD, Co-operative (PDS – Kallakurichi) 23 Mr. R. Qasim, Librarian, Kallakurichi ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES 24 S. Elaiyaraja, Panchayat Union Councilor, Ward # 38 25 Smt. Indira Gandhi Subhash, Panchayat President, Neelamangalam 26 Mr. R. Maniyaragan, Panchayat Vice-President, Neelamangalam 27 Smt. Madhesh Kannadas, Ward Member, Neelamangalam 28 Smt. Jayanti Parmasevam, Ward Member, Neelamangalam 29 Mr. Subramanian Periyasamy, Ward Member, Neelamangalam 30 Mr. Shankar Gundan, Ward Member, Neelamangalam

OTHERS 31 20 members representing Vaazhanda Kattuvom Thittam (VKT – State welfare project) 32 20 SHG Group Members 33 About 500 Panchayat members (village citizens, 75% women) 34 Mr. Kris Dev, NGO resource 35 Mr. Nilesh Gauda, KPMG


Attendance list Photographs of the proceedings Discussed Items

1 The status of the various schemes and services delivered by different departments.

2 The status of the development work in the area. Minutes of Meeting

1

Topic: Child and Women care - ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) Citizen’s View: There are 4 Anganwadis: - 2 in General areas and 2 in Colony areas (SC/ST areas). They are generally functioning well. However, in one of the buildings, there is no electricity supply. Another Anganwadi is housed in a building which is in a dilapidated state. A proper building for the latter has been a long time demand from the citizens. In addition to the exiting 4 Anganwadis, they are demanding 2 more Anganwadis in the new colonies. Official’s Feedback:



Ms. Prabhavati explained the functioning of the Anganwadis and sought the cooperation of ante-natal, post-natal mothers and their families to encourage full utilization of Anganwadis for ensuring safe delivery of healthy children and avoiding infant mortality in the area. She highlighted that the citizens were not fully aware of the various facilities extended by the department and their associated benefits.

2

Topic: Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation - TWAD Board Citizen’s View: The citizens were not aware of the facilities extended by the TWAD Board. They complained about lack of adequate pipeline and water supply for the colony areas for the last 5 years. They sought sanctions for new pipelines for all streets. They complained about water logging inside the houses in low-lying areas and slushy roads due to the absence of proper drainage system. The water from one of the Over Head Tank’s (OHT) is not properly treated and thus non-potable. This has resulted in families falling sick and vulnerable to water-borne diseases. There is no proper monitoring by the Village Water and Sanitation Committee. Official’s Feedback: Mr. Jayaprakash explained that 2 new schemes have been taken up at a cost of Rs.10.2 lacs. These 2 projects are: Rebuilding of an old, dilapidated OHT ( Capacity – 60,000 liters) Putting up a new bore well, pipeline and OHT (Capacity – 30,000 liters) A new 30,000 liters OHT is coming up in the Nari Kurava (Gypsy) colony using National Highway Funds.

3

Topic: Irrigation water supply, Neelamanglam Anaicut, lake and canal – PWD Citizen’s View AKT school drainage is let out in to the lake thereby leading to its pollution. There is insufficient quantity water for irrigation in the lake. A culvert is required over the canal. Official’s Feedback: Mr. Arunagiri explained that the Gomukhi river dam project is under way to provide water to Neelamangalam. Neelamangalam Water User’ Associations is due to be formed out of all adult citizens. An election notification has been issued and is due on 28th September, 2009. The VAO has already furnished the list of citizens with additions and deletions to PWD. He suggested that the citizens can peruse the list and apply in Form-9 if their names do not figure in the list. However, the citizens informed that they are not aware of such a list and requested the VAO to put the list in his office by 5th August as the last date for the addition of names is 15th August, 2009.



4

Topic: Enhancement of hamlets contiguous to forest areas - Forest DepartmentCitizen’s View They are not aware of the schemes for the Forest Department. A few hamlets surrounding Kottalam Malai are covered under forest area. They complained about stray animals and dog menace in the village. Official’s Feedback: For hamlets falling under the forest area, citizens are provided with 500 plans for afforestation and cultivation. These cover teak and other timbers. In the first year, the citizens are paid Rs. 2500/- for taking care of the plants. In the second year, they are paid Rs. 2.50 per living (growing) plant. Priority allotment of gas burner with cylinder is recommended to households in hamlets surrounding the forests to prevent cutting down of trees. Protection of wild animals falls under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. There is a committee to evaluate and pay compensation. The issue of stray dog menace in the hamlets/ Panchayats has to be tackled by the Panchayat/Municipal Corporation.

5

Topic: Cattle welfare - Animal Husbandry Citizen’s View Except a few beneficiaries, not many are aware of the schemes and services extended by the Animal Husbandry Department. They sought information from the department. Official’s Feedback: Dr. Periyasamy explained that insemination campaign is done on rotation basis (Village-by-Village). He informed that such a campaign will be carried out in Neelamangalam in the next 30 days. Up to 20 cattles could be covered in this campaign at a cost of Rs. 2000 per cattle. This is a pilot project being undertaken by the Animal Sciences University. Cattles can be insured for Rs. 146 as premium per year for every Rs. 10000 coverage. An equivalent premium will be paid by the government. In the event of the death of the cattle, the amount will be settled within 2 days by the Insurance company through the Veterinary Doctor. He mentioned that the amount of paper work to be done is enormous and there is a serious paucity of manpower. All the 72 branches in Villupuram are yet to be computerized.

6

Topic: Rural Development - DRDA Citizen’s View They demanded more jobs under NREGS. The present average days of employment was 25 days as compared to 100 days as mentioned in the Act. There are no proper toilets and water supply is inadequate in schools. There are no public toilets for men. The burial ground in the colony is only 0.2 acres I



size and needs to extend to 1 acre. Official’s Feedback: Mr. Gyanansekharan replied by saying that an amount of Rs. 20 lacs has been budgeted for a pond, library, cement roads, burning ghat and street lights. School toilets can be provided under the Welfare Fund of MPLADS Scheme. He said the insurance cover is being provided under NREGS for on the job injuries/death incidents.

7

Topic: Electricity Supply -TNEB Citizen’s View Most of the areas do not get enough electricity and street lights are not operational. Official’s Feedback: The Neelamangalam Panchayat is serviced by the Thyagadurgam substation which is 16 kms away. However, the supply is poor. There is a proposal to setup an intermediary substation at Navalur to enhance supply to Neelamangalam. Requisition for replacement of existing worn-out poles and new poles as well as conversion from 8 gauge wire to 6 gauge wire has been pending for a long time. The monthly report indicates the pending status but no actions or feedback is forth coming. Proper computerization with 2-way feedback mechanism could help in tracking all pending activities online.

8

Topic: Various certificates - Revenue Department Citizen’s View There was a unanimous complaint by all the citizens that the VAO has not visited the village in the past 6 months. He stays in the lodge provided to him free of cost by AKT High School and directs the citizens to bring all the applications to the lodge. He does not meet them in the first few visits. After several visits demands payment for issuing various certificates such as community certificates, income certificates, nativity certificates for school purpose, BPL certificate, old age pension certificate and Chitta certificate. The citizens said that complaints to officials have not yielded any positive response and they demanded the ouster of the VAO. The issue was brought to the notice of the Taluk Officer, Dy. Taluk Officer and Revenue Inspector. Also, for obtaining each of the several certificates, the citizens have to visit Taluk Office, where the concerned officials demand bribes for any action. Official’s Feedback: Mr. Anbazhagan replied that they are trying to render all services promptly.

9 Topic: General Points



Citizen’s View The stock of essential commodities should be clearly indicated in the Fair Price Shops. The additional commodities which are sold at a discounted price, in comparison to market price, are not available most of the time. The citizens suspect that those items are being sold at higher price in the market. The citizens wanted a Ration Society to be formed for proper distribution of stocks. This should be monitored by a Ration Committee. Ration cards have not been issued to about 80 families in the Panchayat. Errors/addition/deletions in the ration card details have not been addressed despite repeated applications. A special camp at Neelamangalam was requested. Separate queue for men and women were sought in ration shops. A community hall for conducting functions/meetings was sought. Garbage bins are not being provided around the colony resulting in wide-spread littering. Unmarried and destitute women have not been provided any support despite repeated applications. Group Houses under special dispensation of the Collector for fire victims are not yet constructed. Problems in the issue of color TV sets and gas cylinders/burners were raised by citizens. Pump sets were sought for draining out rain water.


Responsibility Starting Date Status

1 None.


1 None.



11.3.7 Villupuram Final District Workshop held on 25th August 2009 Meeting: District Workshop – Villupuram

Objective: Presentation of the findings of the ISNA Report for Villupuram district.

Date: 25.08.2009 Location: Mini Hall, Collectorate, Villupuram


Time 11:30 1:30 PM 2 12:30 PM 2:15 PM 1:45 Attendees 1 Mr. P. Rajamani - Assistant Director , Horticulture 2 Mr. Selvaraj Vanavar - Villupuram Town Panchayat 3 Mr. Sampath - Assistant Director, Health 4 Mr. Jayaramaraja - Supervisor, Municipalities Assistant Director Office, Villupuram5 Dr. P.Durairajan - Regional Joint Director, Animal Husbandry 6 Ms. N.Kumudhavalli - Assistant Executive Engineer, RWS Division, TWAD 7 Mr. B. Elumalai - Assistant, Assistant Director, Panchayat's Office 8 Ms. N. Renuka - Junior Assistant, District Social Welfare Office 9 Ms. S. Prabhavati - Project Officer, ICDS 10 Mr. K. Ramalingam - Joint Director, Agriculture 11 Mr. Gnanasekaran - BDO, Village Panchayat, Kallakurichi 12 Mr. M. Periasami - BDO, Block Panchayat, Kallakurichi 13 Mr. N. Muthuvel - VKP, Villupuram 14 Mr. T. Ramachandran - Assistant Project Officer, DRDA, Villupuram 15 Mr. K.A.Jeyachandran - Assistant Director, Planning, District Planning Committee 16 Mr. Velmurugan - District Library Office, Villupuram 17 Mr. Kannan - Athoor Panchayat President, Kallakurichi 18 Mr. Sivalingam - Niraimathi, Kallakurichi 19 Mr. Indiragandhi - Panchayat President, Neelamangalam, Kallakurichi 20 Mr. Venkatachalam - Panchayat Union Chairman, Kallakurichi 21 Ms. Vasundhara Devi - District Panchayat Chairman 22 Ms. K.Santhi Devi - DIO, NIC, Villupuram 23 Mr. Nilesh Gauda, KPMG 24 Mr. R.Sreeram, KPMG 25 Ms. Shweta Shivangi, KPMG



26 Mr. Kris Dev, NGO

Handouts/ Documentation

1 Power point presentation on ISNA report 2 Attendance Sheet 3 Draft Project Report

Discussed Items

1 Validating the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in CSS

2

Validating the planning, monitoring, implementation & accounting activities for schemes such as MPLADS, BRGF, IAY, etc

3

Discussion on I & S needs of PRIs and Citizens

4

Review on the status of CSCs and other State / Departmental initiatives

5

Discussion on the role of computerization & adoption of ICT in overall governance

Minutes of Meeting

1

The proceedings were initiated by the District Panchayat Chairman setting the agenda for the workshop. The DIO presented a brief introduction about the project objectives. The District Collector joined the proceedings about 15 minutes after the start of the presentation due to his prior engagements.

2

The PowerPoint presentation made by the team members on the ePRI project covered topics such as the objectives of the project, various phases, key meetings and events conducted in the district, role of PRIs in various schemes w.r.t planning, implementing, monitoring and accounting, I & S needs across the three tiers, current status of Panchayati Raj, citizen service delivery and the identified 15 existing services and 5 new services.

3

Considerable amount of time was devoted on validating the findings related to the role of the PRIs in the various centrally sponsored schemes. The Collector himself provided his inputs as well as requested the concerned line department officials and the elected representatives to ascertain the findings. The team was advised to make the following changes to the findings, Village Panchayat- Full involvement in BRGF, SSA & IWDP schemes. Village Panchayat- Some involvement in IAY, MPLAD, IGNOAPS, ARWSP, NLRMP, MMS & scholarships schemes. BRGF is coordinated by District Panchayat and Block Panchayat is involved in



devolving funds to the line departments. No role of Village Panchayat. IWDP – Block Panchayat & District Panchayat are involved in the planning / execution of the scheme. MDMS – Block Panchayat & District Panchayat are involved in the planning / execution of the scheme. IAY work-flow involves only Village Panchayat, BDO and PO DRDA. There is no role of Block Panchayat & District Panchayat. TSC – Village Panchayat forwards recommendations to the banks for loans. However, banks do not respect the recommendations of the Village Panchayat. There is no involvement of Block Panchayat & District Panchayat. NREGS is exclusively coordinated by Village Panchayat. Other welfare schemes such as ICDS (Anganwadi), Health, Water & Sanitation, SSA and MMS are coordinated by the Village Panchayat. In most of the cases Panchayat President is the joint signatory.

4

There were varied opinions regarding the role of District Panchayat, Panchayat Union and Village Panchayat in various CSS. The District Panchayat and Panchayat Union were not satisfied with the powers that were delegated to them. The Panchayat Presidents faced problems in the implementation of schemes such as TSC as they were unable to get the necessary assistance from the banks.

5

The District Panchayat Chairman was requested by the Collector to give her inputs about the performance of the various departments. She replied that several Anganwadis were in dilapidated conditions. The ICDS officer, Ms. Prabhavati mentioned that funds have been arranged under MP and MLA schemes for upgrading the Anganwadis and necessary work will be carried out soon.

6 Among other findings, the Collector accepted the point related to the absence of centralized data of citizens (recording the benefits availed under various schemes) and the lack of organic linkage between the three tiers.

7 One of the common problems highlighted was that there is no standard check-list of activities that can be used for monitoring progress on a periodic basis for various schemes.

8

The lack of a Common Database for all agencies / committees at the Village Level was pointed out and concurred by the Collector, officials and elected representatives. They were of the opinion that ICT initiatives can be effectively used for Unique Identification of citizens and tracking of beneficiaries for entitlements such as agricultural loans, animal husbandry loans, PDS, water, sanitation, health, housing, education, employment, etc. It was highlighted that 'Vaazhndu Kattuvom Thittam' of TN Govt. has created a



strong database of the citizens and the proposed common database can be drawn further using this database. The Anganwadis also maintain data about the citizens. However, a central database needs to be created and measure to avoid duplication of data needed to be undertaken.

9

The issue of duplicate/multiple ration cards within the same family was also highlighted. A suggestion of door-to-door verification to be carried out by the Revenue Department was proposed. Once that was done, the common database could be based on ration cards as well.

10

One of the findings pointed out that the Engineering wing was understaffed. The APO-DRDA clarified there are a total of 79 Engineers for 22 Blocks - accounting for 2-3 Engineers per Block and there is no shortage of manpower. The Collector mentioned that there is a shortage of support staff such as computer operators but not in the Engineering wing.

11 The participants acknowledged the need for imparting regular training to teachers, officials and elected representatives about the use of ICT Tools.

12

The District Panchayat Chairman put forth the suggestion to have a single online tracking system for all schemes and services from the Village to the Block and thereafter up to the District level. The same should be available online for the officials, elected representatives and the State Administration for unified control. ICT tools can be put to effective use for this.

13 A suggestion was put forward to strengthen online computerization at the Village, Taluk / Block and District level with adequate trained manpower, hardware, software and power supply.

14

The Collector highlighted that the use of CSCs for delivering G2C / G2G / B2C services should be expedited for enhanced service delivery levels to the citizens. For this, necessary GO, hardware and software support have to be provided at the Panchayat level.

15

The DIO and Collector suggested that the actual statistics about the activities and work load at the Village, Taluk / Block and District level over the last 12 months should be collected and presented as attachments; and analysis of the findings and recommendations should be submitted for simplification of procedures for computerization.

16 The Collector further suggested that a final review of the updated report should be done.

17 At the end, the Collector complimented the team in carrying out the exhaustive study at the District, Taluk / Block and Panchayat level in a short time span of about 4 weeks. He remarked that the findings of the study were good.

Follow up Action Responsibility Target Date Status



Items

1 NA


1 Preparation of MoM KPMG 28th August 2009 NA

2 Update of Villupuram District ISNA report

KPMG 28th August 2009 NA

3 Final review of district ISNA report

DIO, Villupuram 1st September 2009 NA



11.3.8 Dindigul Meeting with PO – DRDA Meeting with PO DRDA, Rural Development

Objective: To Obtain inputs on the role of RD and Panchayat presidents in the planning, monitoring and execution for rural development from PO. And also subsequently understand the central govt. and state govt. schemes for RD involving Panchayat presidents. Date: 14.07.2009 Location: Collectorate Office ,

Dindigul


Time 3:00 PM 3.00 PM

4.00 PM 1 hour

Attendees 1 Mr. Arun Mani, PO Dindugal District 2 AD- Panchayati Raj 3 Mr. Varadharajan , DIO Dindugal 4 Ms. Abhiramalakshmi, KPMG 5 Ms. Shweta Shivangi, KPMG 6 Mr. Sigish, NGO resource Handouts/ Documentation Shared None Discussed Items

1 Central govt. and State govt. schemes and services involving the role of Panchayat presidents.

2 Planning, monitoring and execution of these services and scheme related activities for RD.

3 ICT related activities. Minutes of Meeting

1

The PO responded as follows to the questions put by the KPMG team. Schemes: The centrally sponsored schemes that are under implementation in the state of TN are MPLADD, PMGSY, BRGF, IAY, NREGS, TSC, SGSY

2 Schemes for which plans/proposals are prepared by the PRI- BRGF, IAY, NREGS,



TSC, SGSY

3 Schemes that are implemented (but not planned) by the PRI- None from the above. There are other schemes planned by the line departments and implemented through RD department.

4 The Panchayat has 4 accounts. One of which is specifically meant for schemes

5

There are four accounts maintained at the village Panchayat. General Fund Account- This is the account which contains the money that the Panchayat president collects from the persons living in the village. This amount could be of the order of 2-3 lakhs which is used by the sole discretion of the Panchayat President and the Gram Sabha. The water and EB charges- This is the water and electricity charges collected in the village. Schemes- The money for the schemes is allotted by the central and state govt. grants and this is used by the BDO in accordance with the Gram Sabha requests. The NREGS.

6 Role of PRI in functioning of schemes - The Panchayat as a whole ( along with its ward members) passes orders.

7 Top down fund flow mechanism from Centre to PRI / Village committees - Govt. -> DRDA -> PRI ( District, Block and village Panchayat). The AD Panchayati Raj handles funds at the PRI.

8

Challenges faced by ZP/BP/GP in planning, implementing & monitoring of schemes Since district, block and village Panchayat, each level of the system has its own fund allocation; there is little or no issues between them in planning, implementing and monitoring of schemes.

9

List of services provided by the Panchayat President Agriculture Provision of information and facilitation of Agriculture credit services and Horticulture services. Panchayati Raj Information regarding the works , activities and schemes implemented by the Panchayat To make available the copy of any of the gram Panchayat documents. Rural Development Registration of houses through IAY NREGS SGSY



Labour Registration for job seekers ( Registration in Employment Exchange) Women & Child Welfare Various State Schemes for women and children , aged and infirm etc. Application of widow pension Social Welfare Department Registration / application for SC/ST scholarship disbursement scheme Registration / application for General scholarship disbursement scheme Registration / application for old age / kisan pension scheme Family benefit scheme to legal successor Application for old age pension Election Addition ( or modification or deletion) of name in electoral roll Issuance of election photo ID cards Medical Health Registration of new hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinic diagnostic clinic, etc Information on national programs Administrative reforms RTI Applications for all departments All departments Form Downloads Download/ Distribution of forms Grievance handling Filling & tracking of grievances ( Note : although GO has been passes authorizing the Panchayat President to issue death and birth certificate, its not yet in implementation.)

10 SLAs for the services provided – As defined in ‘Work Order’. 11 The VP is the executing body for all the services.

12

Are any of the services / any part of the service outsourced? MPLADD, PMGSY, BRGF If yes, Find details for each of the outsourced service on the following: SLA, - Work Order Escalation matrix, Revenue model of services – G2C Revenue model for staff, Service model ( PPP, BOO, BOOT) – Property of the PRI Revenue sharing model between state & SCA – No revenue sharing Cost to citizen (service rates / transaction rates)- none Payment mechanism ( cash, cheque, internet, etc)



Payment mechanism from state to provider and vice – versa Approximate no of service applications received for one month Problems faced by the Panchayat and the citizens in delivery of service - none.

13

Organizational structure/ staffing structure of PRI in your district- District Chairman -> Secretary-> Head clerk -> clerk -> typist -> PA Panchayat Union Chairman -> BDO ( Village Panchayat), BDO ( Block Panchayat) -> engineering wing , office staff Panchayat President -> Panchayat Assistant, Makkal Nalan Paniyalar ->, Pump operator, Sanitary workers

14 Adequate manpower is available at each level of PRI to extend the desired functions & services

15

Has the state planning dept. Issued notification for planning workflow for each level of Panchayat? If yes, give details. About the process flow as well as the notification for each Panchayat Planning happens from bottom to top. Village plan becomes a part of the block plan and the block plan becomes a part of the district plan. There are also instances of inter – block and inter- Panchayat planning

16 Are there standing committees at DP/BP/GP level? If yes, what are the names of these committees? Yes, at all 3 levels DP, BP and GP. Education, Appointment, Sanitation; refer GO

17

What is the purpose of these committees? Approval of procedures How many members are there in each of the committees? 3 – 7 members

18 Which sectors are looked after by each of these committees (committee-wise info)? Education, Appointment, Sanitation…refer GO

19 How many times or when does the committee meet? What is their role? (in plan preparation and approval) Once in 3 months or once a month depending on the agenda

20

What funds are received by Panchayats at all levels for which they prepare plans and what are its allocation? (Central Grants(Schemes), State Grants, Own Resources etc) Plans are prepared for schemes based on the concerned population ( e.g. : in case of BRGF, plans are prepared based on the SC/ST population in a particular Village) Plan is administered by the District Panchayat

21 Are there any plans/proposals prepared by DP/BP/GP If yes, how it is planned and what are the different components of plan?



Perspective planning and indicative (annual) planning

22 Do the Panchayats plans become part of district plan? Yes

23 What taxes are collected by the Panchayat? How much is the annual collection under each type of tax? House, property, water charges, professional and advertisement tax

24

Do Panchayats maintain their own Account? A separate GO has been passed for accounting principles. Village Panchayat has 4 accounts General Fund account – State Commission grant, central fund grant EB and Water account –central and state funds for water and EB Scheme Account – for each scheme one ledger is maintained; money can be taken from the account for a particular scheme only based on the proceedings NREGS account – separate account for this scheme ( ‘coz it has separate procedures) Block Panchayat has 2 types of accounts General fund account- State Commission grant, central fund grant Scheme account- I account for each scheme (note: this is unlike the GP, which has only 1 account for all schemes with the exception of NREGS)

25 Is this activity outsourced? If Yes, Challenges faced / key learning from outsourcing of Panchayat Account maintenance NO

26

Is there an Accounts Code ( or Rules/ Administrative guidelines etc) prescribed for three tiers of Panchayats? Is this code or are these rues/ instructions common to the three tiers or do they vary across three tiers? The GP maintains 36 accounting books

27 How many tiers (levels) of classification of Head of Accounts are being used in Panchayat Accounts? No treasury pattern in PRI

28 What accounting system is used by each level of PRI? ( Single entry cash basis, Double entry cash basis, Single entry Accrual basis, Double entry Accrual basis) Double entry

29 Is there any system in place to monitor expenditure & receipt vouchers till the lowest level? Yes. Form 30 is a monthly accounting statement that has to be submitted by the



Panchayat president.

30

What overall measures have been taken at the DP level, to enhance transparency in operations of Panchayats? System is completely transparent in functioning from 2006 ( after Mr. Ashok Vardhan Shetty took position as the Principle Secretary)

31

What are the best practices at the DP level and below PRIs levels to promote transparency? At the DP level, there are two auditing officials – local fund auditor and accounting general Audit is performed at the DP and BP level. Audit for the GP is performed by DPO

32 What are the roadblocks encountered in grievance redressal / RTI's? What are the procedures currently followed? None

33

What is the process of Conducting a social audit concerning PRI functioning and progress. Grama Sabha has been a very successful concept for social auditing at the GP. It happen on 4 days a year. Jan 26, May 1, Aug 15, Oct 2.



1 NA



11.3.9 Dindigul Meeting with Assistant Director – Panchayat on 20-July-2009

Meeting with Assistant Director – Panchayat

Objective: To • obtain scheme specific details on funding and roles played by each of the

stakeholders • obtain Government Orders on the roles of the village president and standing

committee at the district / block/ village • schedule for a meeting with Gram Sabha members and finalize on the block and

village visit

Date: 20th July 2009 Location: Rural Development Office, Dindigul

Scheduled Time Actual Time Start Stop Total

Hours Start Stop Total

Hours 3.00 PM 4.00PM 5.30 PM 1.5 Hrs Attendees 1 Mr. Gunasekaran – Assistant Director, Panchayat 2 Abhiramalakshmi , KPMG 3 Gauthami.M, KPMG


None

Discussed Items

1 Identified officials who could give specific scheme related details 2 Organization structure of the PR institution 3 Block and village visit

Minutes of Meeting

1 The AD Panchayat gave us contacts of people in the RD department and Magalir Thitam department for information on specific scheme related details.

2

Gave us an overview of the organizational structure of the government institution. The District Collector has 60 line departments under him Each Line department has a Joint Director and Assistant Director reporting to the collector



Under RD, the AD Panchayat directly reports to the Collector. The PO reports to the Collector on schemes. BDOs are present for Village Panchayat and Block Panchayat Officers of the Assistant / Joint Director Cadre also given additional responsibility as Zonal Officers.

3 The SLG is an important body constituted to help fund flow towards setting up of micro enterprises.

4

In Athur block, identified BDO Block Panchayat –Mr. R. Navaneetha Krishnan And BDO Village Panchayat – Mr. DuraiRaj. Decided on the to be the village for study. Agreed to inform gram Sabha members to be present during the village field study



1 None Action Items Owner Due Date Requirement 1 None



11.3.10 Dindigul Meeting Gram Sabha at Nagampatti Village Panchayat on 29-July-2009

Meeting – Gram Sabha, Nagampatti

Objective: to discuss on the eligibility criteria for Samathuvapuram project and obtain petitions from the beneficiaries

Date: 29th July 2009 Location: Nagampatti

Scheduled Time Actual Time Start Stop Total

Hours Start Stop Total

Hours11.00 AM 12:00 Noon 1 Hr 11:00 AM 12:00 Noon 1 Hr Attendees 1 Mr. Ramakrishnan, Village Panchayat President 2 Mr. Arun Mani, Project Officer DRDA 3 Mr. Gunasekaran, AD Panchayat 4 BDO , Block Panchayat 5 BDO , Village Panchayat 6 Abhiramalakshmi , KPMG 7 Gauthami.M, KPMG 8 Siva Raman, NGO


None

Discussed Items

1 Overview of the project 2 Services offered to the public

Minutes of Meeting

1 Smathuvapuram is a state sponsored scheme to provide housing to all sections of the community. The idea is to have people of all castes live in harmony.

2

Under this scheme 100 houses are built inside the Panchayat. The allocation are as follows: 40 – SC/ST 25 – BC 25 – MBC 10 – Others The houses are distributed such that no two adjacent houses are occupied by



families of the same caste. In case , the BC, MBC , Others quota does not get filled up by people within that Panchayat, then people of adjoining Panchayats satisfying the defined criteria are allowed to occupy.

3

Criteria for choosing the beneficiaries depends on their existing house Mud wall with hatched roof Brick wall with hatched roof Mud wall with tiled roof Brick wall with tiled roof Physically challenged Non eligibility criteria Houses with cement / RC/ concrete roofing People benefited from other schemes such as IAY

4

Facilities in the housing colony constructed include Houses with lighting Street lamps Overhead tanks Thar Roads Arch at the entrance Tree planting at every house Public distribution center

5

Implementation plan Phase I – 100 houses + public distribution center Phase II - Thar roads Phase III – Drinking water supply

6

Feedback from ward members / villagers present at the Gram Sabha : The ward members were of the opinion that the Panchayat was doing its best at rendering services. They also felt that they are very active in escalations when any resident in their ward as a concern. They also felt that their community was well aware of the roles and responsibilities of the Panchayat body, the services could avail from the Panchayat members and the benefits they are eligible for from the state and central government schemes. They mentioned that the Grama Sabha was instrumental in creating such awareness in the community. A good number of villagers mentioned that they are not aware of the roles and responsibilities of the Panchayat, however they are aware of the benefits given to them by the government, they participate actively during Gram Sabhas and are able to voice their opinions before the Panchayat body. Another good number of villagers mentioned that they do not attend Grama Sabha unless they benefit from the scheme and were not aware of the roles,



responsibilities and services that their Panchayat president or ward member could offer.



1 None Action Items

Owner Due Date Requirement

1 None



11.3.11 Dindigul District Workshop on 2- September-2009

Meeting: District Workshop in Dindigul

Objective: To present the ISNA findings and get approval / suggestions / Feedback from the representatives of the PRIs, Line Departments and Elected Members

Date: 2nd September 2009 Location: Conference Hall, Collectorate, Dindigul


Time 2.30 3.30 1 Hr 2.30 4.30 Hr Attendees 1 Mr. Arunmany, PO, RD, Dindigul 2 Mr. Gunasekaran, AD Panchayat, Dindigul 3 Mrs. Gnanaguru, District Social Welfare Officer, Dindigul 4 Mr. Mathivanan, District Disabled Rehabilitation Officer, Dindigul 5 Mrs. R. Kavita Partiban, District Panchayat Chairman, Dindigul 6 Mr. Periyakaruppan, Deputy Registrar, PDS, Dindigul 7 Mr. Abdul Pari, Technical PA to Deputy Director, Health and Family Welfare 8 Mr. K. Thirukudapandian, BDO Village Panchayat, Kodaikkannal 9 Mr. N. Raveendran, BDO Village Panchayat, Natham 10 Mr. Rasumani, BDO Block Panchayat, Reddiarchatram 11 Mr. Kannaih, BDO, Vadamadurai 12 Mr. Subramanian, BDO Village Panachayat, Vadamadurai 13 Mr. Arun Xavier Robin Lency Rajan, BDO Village Panchayat, Bathlakundu 14 Mr. Navneet Krishnan, BDO Village Panchayat, Athoor 15 Mr. Muthu Krishnan, BDO Block Panchayat, Palani 16 Mr. Sathya Murty, BDO Village Panchayat, Thoppampatti 17 Mr. Balakrishnan, BDO Block Panchayat, Vedasandur 18 Mr. Ramakrishnan, President, Nagampatti, Vedasandur 19 Mr. Milaan, BDO Block Panchayat 20 Mr. Murugesan, BDO Village Panchayat 21 Mr. Rajagopal, BDO Block Panchayat 22 Mr. S. Balasubramanian, BDO Village Panchayat 23 Mrs. Savitri, BDO Village Panchayat 24 Mrs. Venmathi, BDO Village Panchayat



25 Mr. Salim Seth, BDO Block Panchayat 26 Mr. Balasubramanian, President, Sitharevu, Athoor 27 Mr. Muniyandi, BDO Village Panchayat 28 Mr. Murugadas, BDO Block Panchayat, Nilakkottai 29 Mr. M. Gunasekaran, BDO Village Panchayat 30 Mr. Malarkannan, Panchayat Union Chairman, Athoor 31 Mr. T. S. Nagarajan, BDO Block Panchayat, Guziliyamparai 32 Mr. Palani Kumar, BDO Block Panchayat, Guziliyamparai 33 Mr. Liyakat Ali, Panchayat Union Assistant, Shanarpatti 34 Mr. Rajagopal, Revenue Department 35 Mr. Vardharajan, DIO, NIC, Dindigul 36 Mr. Gautam Sinha, KPMG 37 Miss. Abhiramalakshmi. Kartikeyan, KPMG 38 Miss. M. Gauthami , KPMG 39 Mr. Shiva, NGO Handouts/ Documentation Shared 1 Documentary Movie on NeGP and Central MMPs 2 Power point presentation on ISNA findings for Dindigul district 3 Handout on ePRI project 4 Feedback / Suggestions form Discussed Items 1 Background on ePRI project with respect to NeGP and central MMPs 2 ISNA findings for Dindigul district 3 Scheme / Service details and the role of PRIs at different tiers

4 Expectations from the Citizens, DP/PU/VP, and the line departments with respect to ePRI project

5 NeGP initiatives and status of other core MMPs in the State, like CSCs, SDC, and TNSWAN

6 Current Services and new Services identified vis-à-vis role of PRIs 7 State Capacity Assessment

8 Challenges / Issues in autonomy and enablement of PRIs and the use of ICT for the same.

Minutes of Meeting 1

The workshop commenced with Mr. Arunmani, PO, DRD, addressing the attendees and giving them a briefing about the ePRI project and the work done so far by the KPMG team. He covered the following points in his introductory speech: KPMG team had been assigned the ePRI project by the Government of India.



This is a research project where the team is studying the Panchayati Raj system, its structure, organization and functioning. Subsequently changes would be proposed in the system and its working in order to enhance the process of citizen service delivery. The team has conducted the field study for the past 4 weeks at the District, Block and Village level in Dindigul. He also mentioned that the study was being conducted simultaneously at two districts in Tamil Nadu i.e. Villipuram and Dindigul. The findings of both the districts are going to be analyzed in order to propose initiatives that would apply to the state of Tamil Nadu. The workshop was conducted as a part of the formal closing of the study phase with a presentation of the facts and findings, as well as validation of the same. He further requested the audience to participate in the workshop actively and give objective suggestions and feedback that would add value to the ePRI project.

2 The PO then invited the KPMG team member, Mrs. Abhiramalakshmi, to initiate the presentation. The KPMG team members were introduced and also a handout on the ePRI project and phases were circulated for ready reference.

3

A video was played by the KPMG team to provide an overview of the NeGP initiatives and core MMPs to the audience present there. It was an audio-visual that described the Mission Mode Projects initiated by the Government of India with the use of ICT. It covered the citizen woes regarding citizen service delivery, as a part of survey conducted by GoI, and the initiatives taken as a part of the National e-Governance Plan to make service delivery faster, cheaper and more transparent. The video was translated in local language by Mrs. Abhiramalakshmi to provide more clarity about the objectives of NeGP and ePRI MMP, and to enable better understanding of the audience about the initiatives and its end objective.

4

After the background about core MMPs and ePRI, Mrs. Abhiramalakshmi proceeded further with the PowerPoint presentation. The agenda of the presentation covered the following: Project Background Devolution status Information and service needs Identified current and new services. Challenges / Issues in autonomy and enablement of PRIs and the use of ICT for the same. State Capacity Assessment and integration with other NeGP initiatives

5 Mrs. Abhiramalakshmi discussed the agenda of the workshop and explained the



existing service delivery mechanism. She also emphasized how the NeGP initiatives is paving the path for an interface between the Citizen and local bodies/line departments through the use of ICT, so that there is only one touch point for the citizen to request and avail services. She then explained the proposed service delivery transformation that is being envisaged, using the State infrastructure i.e. CSCs, SWAN and SDC.

6

The following points were dealt in detail during the course of the presentation: e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institution and the expected outcomes and benefits of the project Phases of the project and work completed so far Important meetings Conducted at District, Block and Village Key activities at Dindigul District specifying the meetings with the line department officials and elected representatives at all the three tiers of Panchayat and the information captured out of these meetings. Key meetings conducted such as the Grama Sabha, Review Meetings by PO etc. Current status of Panchayati Raj with respect to funds, functions and functionaries. Scheme mapping using colour codes explaining the extent of role played by all the 3 tiers of Panchayats in the planning, implementation, monitoring and accounting aspects of schemes. Current status and Challenges identified as a result of the interactions. Factors affecting the Autonomy of Panchayats Information and service needs Status of other NeGP initiatives its integration List of services identified (15 existing and 5 new) State Capacity Assessment for Tamil Nadu

7

At the conclusion of the presentation, the forum was opened for discussion. The audience actively participated in the discussion and also provided in their feedbacks and comments in the feedback form that was circulated at the start of the project.

8

Few of the key suggestions / concerns / feedback received from the attendees during the discussion session are as follows: BDO, Block Panchayat, Athoor: He suggested that there should be a co-ordination between the 3 levels of the PRIs. An organic linkage has to be provided for the strengthening of the Panchayat Raj institution and also Village Panchayats has to be delegated more powers as it is the focal point where all the schemes happen to converge. Mrs. Abhiramalakshmi apprised the audience that as part of the field study, this



aspect has already been identified by the KPMG team, as a major gap in the system and has been incorporated in the report. Any further suggestion in this direction shall be also incorporated. Another BDO mentioned that there is a lack of manpower at the Village Panchayat Office. Although there is an Assistant and Makkal Nala Paniyalar, they are over burdened with NREGS and other scheme works. Hence any new services provided should be supported with trained manpower specific to that service. One of the BDOs said that although computer operators were provided to operate the Computers at the Village Panchayats, they have been withdrawn now. Hence there is no skilled man power at the village level to operate the computers and all of systems are lying idle as of now. Hence there should be some provision to provide trained computer operators. A Panchayat President also felt the need of a Technical wing at the Village Panchayat level in order to be able to make more informed decisions on the schemes. He further also mentioned that an external agency from Mumbai had suggested setting up a CSC like enterprise at a cost of Rs 2 lakh. The Panchayat President was willing to invest that amount and wanted such an initiative to be taken as soon as possible. Mrs. Abhiramalakshmi responded that the Government of India would very shortly aid the setting up of such centers and it would be entirely citizen centric, having proper guidelines so that any malpractices could be prevented that could arise with individually/privately established centers. Also the Panchayat presidents commonly raised the issue that although the GOs have been released where the Panchayat Presidents are empowered to issue Community, Birth / Death Certificates, the Revenue Department still has complete control over these services and the Panchayat Presidents have no role to play. Also the citizens are unaware of such GOs and hence they still approach the Tahsildar for obtaining these services. The District Panchayat Chairperson was of the opinion that the Kerala Panchayat Raj system should be studied and certain key inputs should be adopted from there, such as the convergence of the Line Departments at the Village Panchayat level. In Kerala, all the Line departments function under the Village Panchayats and there are close to 40 people under the Panchayat President. Hence the Village Panchayat by itself is type of Mini Government functioning at the grass root level. She was of the opinion that the manpower of the Village Panchayat in Tamil Nadu should be increased, thereby strengthening the body to provide faster and reliable service delivery, as per expectations of



the citizens. The official from the Revenue Department was of the opinion that issuance of Chitta is already being done by the Revenue Department and it cannot be performed by PRIs. The Revenue department has made investments in setting up a kiosk at the district office where the citizen can view / verify chitta, patta , A-Register and Land Ownership. Similarly he pointed out that the issuance of community certificate will not require involvement of PRI. He also suggested that the issuance of birth and death certificate could be made as two separate services.

9 There were several other queries with regard to the ePRI project and its implementation from the audience, and all these queries were adequately answered and clarification provided by the KPMG team.

10

At the end of the session, the workshop was officially closed with a request to audience to provide the feedback form. Mrs. Abhiramalakshmi, on behalf of the KPMG team also requested them to provide their help and support in future phases of the project. The KPMG team extended their appreciation for their time and effort in participating in the workshop, and also thanked them for their overwhelming support and co-operation.



1 NA Action Items Owner Due Date Requirement 1 Preparation of MoM KPMG 3rd September 2009 NA

2 Updation of Dindigul district ISNA report

KPMG 3rd September 2009 NA

3 Approval for Dindigul district ISNA report

DIO, Dindigul 3rd September 2009 NA



11.4 Glossary

ARWSP Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme

BDO Block Development Officer

BP Block Panchayat

BPL Below Poverty Line

BRGF Backward Regions Grant Fund

CLM Central Line Ministries

CSC Common Services Centre

CSS Centrally Sponsored Scheme

DIO District Informatics Officer

DP District Panchayat

DPC District Planning Committee

DPR Detailed Project Report

DRDA District Rural Development Agency

ELCOT Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu

G2C Government to Citizen

G2G Government to Government

IAY Indira Awaas Yojna

ICDS Integrated Child Development Services

ICT Information and Communication Technology



IGNOAPS Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme

INS Information and Services Needs

ISNA Information and Services Needs Assessment

IT Information Technology

IWDP Integrated Wasteland Development Programme

MDM Mid Day Meal

MMP Mission Mode Project

MoPR Ministry of Panchayati Raj

MoRD Ministry of Rural Development

NeGP National eGovernance Plan

NFSM National Food Security Mission

NGO Non-Government Organisation

NHM National Horticulture Mission

NIC National Informatics Officer

NLRMP National Land Resource Management Programme

NOC No Objection Certificate

NREGS National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

NRHM National Rural Health Mission

PEU Project Execution Unit

PHC Primary Health Centre



PMGSY Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

PoP Point of Presence

PPP Public Private Partnership

PRA Participatory Research Assessment

PRI Panchayati Raj Institutions

PWD Public Works Department

RIRD Regional Institute of Rural Development

RKVY Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana

RTI Right To Information

SCA Service Center Agency

SDC State Data Centre

SGSY Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana

SIRD State Institute of Rural Development

SIO State Informatics Officer

SIO State Informatics Officer

SLA Service Level Agreement

SSA Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

TNSWAN Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network

TSC Total Sanitation Campaign

UC Utilization Certificate



UPS Uninterrupted Power Supply

VAO Village Administrative Officer

VP Village Panchayat



11.5 References The following is the list of documents and materials referred during the course of the study phase,

• TN Panchayat Act 1994 • Rural Development’s Policy Notes-2009-2010 • http://www.tnrd.gov.in/ • http://www.tn.gov.in/ • Various GO, Circulars, Citizen Charters and Reports available on the RD, Line Department

and State agency websites. • Handouts and documents obtained during meetings with officials (RD and line departments)

and elected representatives.



11.6 Brief profile of the two districts

11.6.1 Villupuram District

Villupuram District Profile

Established

Villupuram 1993

Political

Area 7222.03 Sq.Km.

Nearest Railway Station

Villupuram

Nearest Airport Chennai

Geographical Location

Latitude East 800 – West 78.380

Longitude North 110- South 12.350

Boundary

North Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai

East Bay of Bengal, Puducherry

South Cuddalore

West Dharmapuri, Salem

Distance From

Chennai 159 Km.

Coimbatore 334 Km.

Madurai 289 Km.

Tiruchy 164 Km.



Natural

Rivers Gadilam, Malattar, Pennar, Sankaraparani

Climate

Rainfall (Normal) 1029.4 Millimeter

Temperature Dry And Moderate

Administrative

No. of Subdivisions 4

No. of Blocks 22

No. of Police Stations 24

No. of Panchayats 1104

No. of Revenue Villages

1490

Agriculture

Area 391917 Hectare

Cultivable Land 335266 Hectare

Non-Cultivable Land 56651 Hectare

Irrigated Land 229498 Hectare

Non-Irrigated Land 105768 Hectare

Major Crops Paddy, Corn, Ragi, Redgram. Blackgram, Horsegram, Sugarcane, Groundnut, Cotton, Casurina, Coconut

Demography (According To 2001 Census)

Male 215027

Female 211890

Urban

Total 426917

Rural Male 1277415



Female 1256041

Total 2533456

Literacy (According To 2001 Census)

Male 75.5%

Female 52.5%

Aggregate 64.7%

Education

Primary Schools 1311

Upper Primary Schools

234

High Schools 147

Higher Secondary Schools

141

Degree Colleges 10



11.6.2 Dindigul District

Dindigul District Profile

Established

Dindigul 1985

Political

Area 6266.64 Sq.Km.

Nearest Railway Station

Dindigul

Nearest Airport Madurai

Geographical Location

Latitude East 77.300 – West 78.200

Longitude North 10.050- South 10.090

Boundary

North Erode, Karur

East Tiruchi

South Madurai

West Tiruppur, Kerala State

Distance From

Chennai 395 Km.

Coimbatore 151 Km.

Madurai 66 Km.

Tiruchy 79 Km.

Natural

Rivers Manjalaru, Vaigai



Climate

Rainfall (Normal) South West Monsoon

251.4 Millimeter

Rainfall (Normal) North East Monsoon

399.2 Millimeter

Temperature (Maximum)

33.250 C

Temperature (Minimum)

21.50 C

Administrative

No. of Subdivisions

3

No. of Blocks 14

No. of Police Stations

51

No. of Panchayats

306

No. of Revenue Villages

358

Agriculture

Area 391917 Hectare

Cultivable Land 245166 Hectare

Non-Cultivable Land

39210 Hectare

Irrigated Land 102639 Hectare

Non-Irrigated Land

142527 Hectare

Major Crops Paddy, Millets And Other Cereals, Pulses, Sugarcane,



Flowers,Groundnut, Cotton, Casurina, Coconut

Demography (According To 2001 Census)

Urban 673252

Rural 1249762

Literacy (According To 2001 Census)

Male 57.7%

Female 42.3%

Aggregate 61.4%

Education

Primary Schools 1110

Upper Primary Schools

306

High Schools 86

Higher Secondary Schools

95

Degree Colleges 17

Date post:	14-Mar-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	doananh
View:	294 times
Download:	10 times

Ministry of Panchayati Raj ePRI Study Project Information & … Tamil Nadu Stat… · Ministry of...

Documents