Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, April 13: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said in a Cabinet briefing that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) recommended the continuance of the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) through 2025-26 with an outlay of Rs 5,911 crore.
In an official announcement, the CCEA stated that the Central Share of the scheme’s entire financial outlay is Rs 3,700 crore, while the State Share is Rs 2,211 crore. The redesigned centrally funded RGSA scheme has also been authorised for implementation from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2026 (co-terminus with the XV Finance Commission period) to strengthen governance capacities of Panchayati Raj Institutions, according to the statement (PRIs).
According to the Cabinet, the approved RGSA scheme will assist more than 2.78 lakh rural local bodies, including traditional bodies, across the country in developing governance capacities to deliver on SDGs through inclusive local governance and optimum resource utilisation. All capacity development interventions, including trainings, training modules, and materials, will be designed around the SDGs’ main values of leaving no one behind, reaching the farthest first, and universal coverage, as well as gender equality.
Priority will be given to subjects of national importance, including poverty-free and improved livelihood in villages, healthy villages, child-friendly villages, water-sufficient villages, clean and green villages, self-sufficient infrastructure in villages, socially secure villages, villages with good governance, and engendered development in villages, according to the Cabinet.
Strengthening panchayats will promote fairness and inclusiveness, as well as social justice and community economic growth, because they are institutions closest to the grassroots and have representation from schedule castes, schedule tribes, and women. PRIs that employ e-governance more frequently will be able to increase service delivery and transparency. The initiative aims to develop gramme sabhas so that they can serve as effective institutions that promote social inclusion of individuals, especially the most vulnerable.
This plan will cover all States and UTs in the country, as well as rural local government entities in non-Part IX areas where panchayats do not exist.
