At the inauguration of the ‘National Panchayati Raj Day’ function on April 24, 2010 in New Delhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh gave away awards to six states, namely Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Sikkim for best implementation of the Panchayat Empowerment & Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS).

The award has been instituted to encourage states to empower the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) and evolve mechanisms for transparency and accountability of these institutions.

Kerala and Karnataka received the first prize of Rs 2.50 crore each. The second prize of Rs 1.50 crore each were awarded to Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Maharashtra came third and received a cash prize of Rs 1 crore while Sikkim received Rs 1 crore as the best performing north east state. The ministers for rural development and secretary rural development from these states received the awards.

In his address, Dr Singh called on all the states to take more effective steps in strengthening PRIs so that panchayats in the country could play a more active role in sustained and inclusive development. The impact of the 73rd Amendment in rural India is clearly visible, as it has changed power equations significantly. Elections to the panchayats are being held regularly. Through over 600 district panchayats, around 6000 intermediate panchayats and 2.3 lakh gram panchayats, more than 28 lakh persons now have a formal position in the representative democracy, he said.

He stressed the importance of panchayats in ensuring direct participation of people in administration and their role in ensuring accountability and transparency of government agencies and officials. The participation of panchayats in different development is necessary, as panchayats are aware of local needs.

The prime minister said that the government is aware of the difficulties being faced by the panchayats and stressed the need for capacity building of panchayats. Referring to the announcement of the facilities provided by the 13th Finance Commission in the previous budget Dr Singh said as per the announcements panchayats have been given a share in the taxes. He said this would establish panchayats as a unit of local administration in true sense.

At the same event, the prime minister released ‘The State of Panchayats Report 2008-09’.

Union Panchayati Raj Minister Dr C P Joshi who also addressed the gathering said a number of initiatives had been undertaken by the government to strengthen the panchayati raj system. He said there is a need to emphasise on convergence among different programmes/schemes at the panchayat level. Dr Joshi referred to the on going ‘Year of the Gram Sabha’ to highlight the critical importance of gram sabha in responsible self-governance and said that under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, construction of Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra with e-enabled services such as village knowledge resource centres and gram panchayat bhawans have been approved.

The initiative is likely to transform the panchayat system because it is found that almost 25% of the panchayats do not have their own offices and only 20% gram panchayats have computing facility.