National Panchayat Diwas Awards

On the occasion of National Panchayat Diwas on 24th April, 2011, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has decided to give the annual PEAIS 2011 Awards to the best performing States under the Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive Scheme and the Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha 2011 Awards to best Gram Sabhas and Gram Panchayats in the country (7 Nos), the e-Panchayat Awards 2011 and present the award to the winners of the nationwide Drawing and painting competition and Essay competitions held during the “Year of the Gram Sabha” ( 2nd October 2009-2nd October 2010. The detail of awards to be given by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and NAC Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi is as under:

Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS) - Assessment of the States for 2010-2011

Panchayat Empowerment Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS ) was implemented by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) in 2005-06 to motivate states to empower the Panchayats by devolving Funds, functions and functionaries ( 3Fs). The scheme aims at encouraging the States for empowering the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and putting in place mechanism for transparency and accountability of the PRIs. Performance of the States in these respects is measured through a Devolution Index (DI) formulated by an independent institution. A token award is also given to the States, for which the annual provision is currently at Rs. 10 crore.

This year in addition to the cumulative achievement of the state, the DI study also took into account incremental achievement since 1st April 2009.For 2010-11, the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi was engaged for the task of preparation of DI and ranking the States.

Rashtryira Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar 2011:

In order to appreciate and devise an appropriate structure of incentives and to recognize and encourage the Panchayats for outstanding performance through effective Gram Sabhas, especially in respect of improvements in the social and economic structure of the village, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has instituted National level Awards for Best Gram Sabhas and name it as “ Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha” .

The broad objective for instituting this award is to incentivise excellence in performance of Gram Panchayats through effective gram sabhas. It is expected that the Award will not only be a step to energise the Gram Sabahs will encourage the Gram Panchayats to organise more gram sabhas and encourage people’s participation. The prize money for this award is Rs Ten lakhs ( Rs 10 lakhs only). The Award money will be utilized by the Panchayats for public purposes such as augmentation of civic services like primary education, primary health care, safe drinking water, public utilities; provision rural infrastructure in the Panchayat jurisdiction etc.

It is very interesting to note that among the nominated Gram Panchayats for the RGGS Award 2011, three GP are headed by female Sarpanches. This list of awradees present an interesting representation of efforts made by the Elected Women representatives in excellence observance of “The Year of the Gram Sabha”.

This year the following Gram Sabhas and Gram Panchayats have merited for RGGS 2011:

S. No.	Name of the District	Name of the Block/Taluka	Name of the Gram Panchayat/ Gram Sabha Nominated	State	Name of the Sarpanch ( recipient of the Award)
1	Belgaum	Athani	Shiraguppi	Karnataka	Sri Vinesh Iragouda Patil
2	South Goa	Sanguem	Kirlapal Dabal	Goa	Shri Rama Sonugaonkar
3	Rajkot	Padadhari	Depaliya	Gujarat	Smt Rasilaben Dalsaniya
4	Rohtak	Rohtak	Assan	Haryana	Shri Raj Singh
5	Jalgaon	Chopda	Chahardi	Maharashtra	Smt. Sangitabai Koli
6	Ajmer	Shrinagar	Aradaka	Rajasthan	Smt Raheesa Khatoon
7	South District	Melli	Mellidara-Paiyong	Sikkim	Shri Ganesh Rahi

e Panchayat Puraskar 2011

This Year a national award in the category of e panchayat Puraskar has been instituted by MoPr in order to appreciate the excellent achievent of various States in the implementation of Model Accounting system for Panbchayats ( MAS) and PRIASoft. A prize money of Rs 50 lakhs for first prize , Rs 30 lakhs for second and Rs 20 lakhs for third prize will be given to the winning states. It is expected that the prize money would be uti;lised for further strengthening / development of MAS/ PRIASoft initiative in the state viz., provision of computers , training to concerned functionaries etc. It is pertinent to mention here that the MAS and PRIASoft has enhanced accountability and transparency of the Panchayats and also institutionalized robust but simple finanacial management system. This year One First , two Second prizes and three third prizes are being given.The following States will receive the e Panchayat Puraskar:

	STATE	PRIZE	PRIZE MONEY
1	ODISHA	FIRST PRIZE	RS 50 LAKHS
2	MAHARASHTRA	SECOND PRIZE	RS 30 LAKHS
3	TRIPURA	SECOND PRIZE	RS. 30 LAKHS
4	PUNJAB	THIRD PRIZE	RS 20 LAKH
5	ASSAM	THIRD PRIZE	RS. 20 LAKHS

Prizes for the National level winners of Drawing Painting and Essay Competitions held during the “Year of the Gram Sabha “ ( 2nd October 2009-2nd October 2011)

A nationwide sensitization programme was organized by Ministry of Panchayati Raj during the “ Year of Gram Sabha” ( from 2nd October 2009-2nd October 2010). For this, the services of Directorate of field Publicity ( DFP) , MoI&B was availed for mass media awareness campaign at the grass root level, followed by national level for Drawing painting and Essay competitions.

The DFP through their Regional units conducted one programme per Unit, in one district under their jurisdiction. The special programme designed by DFP for MoPR focused on Sensitizing the people on Panchayati Raj through film and other inputs material, oral communication based on various people centric schemes and important aspects of Gram Sabha ands Gram Panchayats followed by national painting and Essay competition open for all.

The main objective of these competition were , in one hand, to sensitize people on aspects of Gram Sabha / Gram Panchayat and various schemes of Panchayati Raj and also to seek peoples participation including one, in the last mile , to participate in this mass campaign for the Year of Gram Sabha.The participation of younger generation especially from remote areas , in these were overwhelming.

The District and State level winners were judged by the Satte Panchayat Departments and Regional Units of DFP. Among the state level winners , the national winners of Drawing Painting and Essay competition on “ Active Gram Sabha”. The following are the national level winners.

LIST OF WINNERS OF DRAWING PAITING COMPETITION AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL

S. No.	Name of the winner	Tehsil / District	State	Prize Money
1	Shri Parasad Dattatreya Chavhan	Tehsil Koregaon Dist. Satara	Maharashtra	Rs 25,000
2	Ms. Meghawi Saini	Nasibpur, Narnaul, Dstrict Mahendragarh	Haryana	Rs. 15,000
3(1)	Shri Ajaz-Ul-Haq	Akramabad Village District Doda	Jammu & Kashmir	Rs. 10,000
3(2)	Ms. Jyoti Manoharrao Mate	District Aurangabad	Maharashtra	Rs. 10,000

LIST OF WINNERS OF ESSAY COMPETITION AT NATIONAL LEVEL

S.No.	Name of the winner	Village/Tehsil/ District	State	Prize Money
1	Ms. Rini Joshi	New Cera, District -Pithoragarh	Uttarakhand	Rs. 25,000
2	Ms. Diana Thomas	District- Malkapuram, Vishakapattanam	Andhra Pradesh	Rs. 15,000
3	Shri Kalluri Eswar Datt Adarsh	Chillakur Village District-Nellore	AndraPradesh	Rs. 10,000

Highlights

Maharashtra bags maximum awards – ( RGGS, PEAIS -3rd prize, 2 prizes for national drawing and painting and Second Prize in e Panchayat puraskaar)

Haryana bags three awards ( RGGS , PEAIS 5th in incremental index and Winner of National Drawing Painting Competition -2nd prize).

J & K bags one prize in Drawing and Painting competition.

Karnataka bags three awards ( RGGS and 2 PEAIS awards)

Odisha bags first prize in e Panchayat Puraskar.

Sikkim bags two awards ( RGGS and PEAIS)

Rajasthan gets two awards ( RGGS and 1st prize in PEAIS Incremental devolution)