Why in news? The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu  presented National Panchayat Awards and inaugurated National Conference on Incentivization of Panchayats in New Delhi

Highlights:

• The Ministry of Panchayati Raj will be celebrating National Panchayat Awards Week during 17th – 21st April, 2023 as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) 2.0 in the run-up to the National Panchayati Raj Day (24th April, 2023).
• To celebrate this monumental occasion in the right spirit and in line with the AKAM 2.0 directives of adopting “whole-of-society” and “whole-of-government” approach as well as enhancing the outreach of AKAM 2.0 to touch the lives of every Indian.
• the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has conceptualized a series of Thematic Conferences for the National Panchayat Awards Week on the theme “Panchayaton ke Sankalpon ki Siddhi ka Utsav” where the representatives of high performing Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) will not only receive their coveted Awards but will also deliberate and discuss their achievements in the presence of other stakeholders that can set examples for others to follow.
• The award money will be transferred digitally to the Awardee Panchayats on this occasion.
• A booklet on ‘Best Practices on Works of Awardee Panchayats’ would be released and the first copy of the booklet will be presented to the Hon’ble President of India.

The Awardee Panchayats under various categories of National Panchayat Awards–2023 namely,

• Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (DDUPSVP) for the performance under individual LSDG themes,
• Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (NDSPSVP) for the aggregate performance under all 9 LSDG themes and green initiative related Special Categories
• Gram Urja Swaraj Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar and
• Carbon Neutral Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar will be felicitated

GS NIRNAY(National Initiative for Rural India to Navigate, InnovAte and Resolve PanchaYat)

• To further strengthen Gram Sabha for ensuring participatory democracy and making empowered people and accountable Panchayats, a new mobile application GS NIRNAY, has been developed to record and upload Gram Sabha proceedings open for public view.
• The recordings made through the GS NIRNAY app will provide a means of verification of facts where necessary or in case of queries that may arise regarding the resolutions undertaken during the Gram Sabha.
• This would bring in more transparency and increase efficiency in the functioning of Panchayats, which play a vital role in decentralized participatory democracy as enshrined in the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.
• The app will also serve as a valuable repository of information for future reference.

About National Panchayat Awards’

• Incentivization of Panchayats scheme is one of the central components of Centrally Sponsored scheme of revamped Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA). Under this scheme, ‘National Panchayat Awards’ are given to the best performing Panchayats, including financial incentives for award winning Panchayats, in recognition of their performances under various priority sectors/themes.
• Last year, the format, procedures and categories of the National Panchayat Awards were revised comprehensively to establish a multi-level competition aligning with the nine themes of LSDGs.
• It was envisioned that this will help in accelerating the pace of attainment of LSDGs. The initiatives which have been steered so far have yielded positive outcomes. Accordingly, this year’s National Panchayat Awards will be conferred for outstanding works in various thematic areas in making the Panchayats poverty free, healthy, child and women friendly, water sufficient, clean and green, self-sufficient infrastructure, socially just and secured and good governed Panchayats.