implement them with vigour and passion. He was entrusted with the big responsibility of managing all the programs in the district, getting them implemented with a good quality and within prescribed time.
BACKGROUND- CHANDRAPUR DISTRICT IN MAHARASHTRA
Chandrapur district is located in central India on the far east of Maharashtra state bordering Andhra Pradesh. This district is typically one of the hottest places in India with the extremes of temperatures affecting human life and day to day work. The region suffers from acute scarcity of water and power cuts of up to 5 hours a day due to shortage of electricity.
In the British era, districts were allocated to states along linguistic lines; Chandrapur, with Marathi as the major language spoken, was transferred from Madhya Pradesh to the Bombay State in 1956. Rajura Tehsil was similarly transferred from Hyderabad to Nanded and then to Chandrapur in 1959. In 1981, Administrative difficulties mandated the split of the district into Chandrapur and Gadhchiroli, both of which are currently part of the Red Corridor. Chandrapur was named one of the 250 most backwards districts in India by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj; it thus receives funds from Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme( BRGF).
The region is rich in mineral resources like coal and gypsum. With industries like the Wardha Valley Coalfield and several large limestone reserves, the region has seen rapid industrialization. This has attracted many cement firms to setup factories, e. g. L & T or UltraTech Cement, Gujarat Ambuja, ACC Cement, Manikgarh Murli Cement, etc. The third industry, mining and cement being the top two spots, is paper making( BILT – Ballarpur Industries Ltd. being the major manufacturer). The Chandrapur Super-thermal power plant qualifies as one of the largest in Asia. The labour in these companies is usually unskilled and illiterate, and typically employed on a contractual basis. Being big players, there is a considerable amount of clout and lobbying that the companies exert on the governmental activities. The land mafia and Naxalites have also been known to create major hindrances in all kinds of development work.
PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA
Panchayati Raj in India is the greatest ever experiment of democracy undertaken in history in terms of electorate size, number of grassroots institutions covered( more than 250,000), number of persons elected to the Panchayats and Municipalities( in excess of 3.6 million) and in terms of the empowerment of some 1.2 million women( 37 % of the entire population of elected candidates) who have been elected to our Panchayati Raj Institutions( PRIs).
THE 11TH FIVE YEAR PLAN
Decentralization of political institutions in India involves both the delegation and devolution of power. India with its socio economic constraints is a complex playground for such as change. In states, like Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal, PRIs have played a vital role in changing the traditional power structure dominated by the deadly nexus of the local elite and the bureaucracy and has transformed the rural life style for marginalized sections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajastan & Gujarat. However, India ' s commitment to democracy, decentralization and development as stated in the constitution would keep pushing India to perform better to promote grass root empowerment. The initiatives through the 73rd Amendment have introduced new measures to alleviate the poor making the representation in the grass root politics more vibrant. Moving forward on these lines, the 11th Five Year Plan suggested a number of reforms in the Panchayati Raj Institutions in India.
In order to increase peoples ' participation, the Plan recommended the establishment of Ward Sabhas, standardization of Gram Sabha roles and establishment of an interface between the Panchayats and NGOs. For effective fiscal devolution, it was recommended to establish a database on local revenue collection by Panchayats keeping in line with the guidelines of the 12th Finance Commission. States were asked to overlook the tax collection process and train the people involved, wherever required.
For schematic fund transfers relating to specific functions, transfers to the Panchayats were recommended by consolidating them into block transfers on the lines proposed by the Expert Group report on Planning at the Grassroots Level.
A fund, exceeding Rs. 2000 Crore( 1 Crore = 10 Million) was asked to be created in order to incentivize Panchayat empowerment by States and for the performance of devolved functions. With pre-set benchmarks, the funds would move only as fast as the implementation would happen at the ground level. National and State level task forces were to be established to plan, implement and monitor these strategies.
The Plan also had a focus on E-Governance and made the following recommendations:
1. Software Development 2. Capacity Building
3. Developing an online community of Panchayats through the National Panchayat Portal.
IT based support systems were sought for sharing of data such as census, health audits, educational inspections etc.
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