161 panchayats in state adopt eGramSwaraj
Source: Chronicle News Service / PIB
New Delhi/Imphal, March 28 2023:
Ministry of Panchayati Raj is implementing e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) under Digital India Programme in all the states/ UTs of the country with the aim to revamp the functioning of Panchayats and to make them more transparent, accountable and effective.
As part of the mission, the ministry has launched eGramSwaraj, an accounting application to simplify Panchayat work like planning, accounting and budgeting.
Ministry has also integrated eGramSwaraj with Public Financial Management System (PFMS) for Gram Panchayats (GPs) to make real time payments to vendors/service providers.
According to information provided by union minister of state for Panchayati raj, Kapil Moreshwar Patil in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Manipur has 3182 gram pancha yats out of which 161 have adopted eGramSwaraj.
Out of these, 161 gram panchayats have integrated online payment system (PFMS).
The data further stated that Manipur has 12 Zila Parishads and six of them have adopted eGramSwaraj and integrated with online payment system.
All states of northeast region except Meghalaya and Nagaland are way ahead of Manipur in adopting eGramSwaraj and integrating online payment system.
Mizoram and Tripura have achieved full saturation in adopting eGramSwaraj while Meghalaya has not started the adoption.
Furthermore, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is implementing BharatNet project to provide broadband connectivity to all GPs in the country.
Phase-I of the project to connect one lakh GPs has been completed in December, 2017.Under Phase-1 of BharatNet, out of 1.23 lakh GPs approximately 1.22 lakhs GPs were made service ready.
Implementation of Phase-II to connect remaining GPs is in progress.
Under Phase-2 of BharatNet, out of 1.44 lakh allotted GPs more than 71,000 GPs have been made service ready.
All states are making efforts at state level to implement e-Panchayat MMP, based on their available resources.
However, due to differentials in the level of preparedness of Panchayats across the country, states are at different stages of implementing these applications.
Besides, some states have their own state-specific applications for similar purpose.