Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil will inaugurate the National Write-shop on Preparedness of Roadmap for Revamped National Panchayat Awards in New Delhi tomorrow. He will also release the Operational Guidelines on the Revamped National Panchayat Awards.

The National Writeshop will provide orientation on Revamped National Panchayat Awards application process to States/UTs officials from line Departments, who will further percolate it upto Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in a cascade mode.

Under the revamped system, the Awards will be given to Gram, Block and District Panchayats in two categories namely, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (for individual theme-wise performance) and Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar (for aggregate performance under all the themes). Thematic Selection Committees for each theme at respective levels will select the awardee Panchayats. Apart from this, some special categories of awards will be given to Gram Panchayats (GPs) namely, Gram Urja Swaraj Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar for adoption and usage of renewable sources of energy; Carbon Neutral Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar for exemplary work towards achieving Net-Zero carbon emissions; Nanaji Deshmukh Sarvottam Panchayat Satat Vikas Puraskar for GPs which qualify and get shortlisted for National Panchayat Awards during the subsequent years also; Panchayat Kshamta Nirmaan Sarvottam Sansthan Puraskar for Institutions which have provided institutional support to GPs in achieving LSDGs and Best Participating State/UT/District/Block Panchayat.

Towards the endeavour of a successful implementation of the revamped National Panchayat Awards, MoPR is collaborating with nodal Central Ministries/Departments namely, Rural Development, Health & Family Welfare, Women & Child Development, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Social Justice & Empowerment and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. These nodal Ministries would be leading the Thematic Selection Committees for selection of National Level Awards on the concerned themes and the other line Ministries/Departments would be the members of these Committees.

Earlier, during 4^th-6^th July, 2022, a National Writeshop on Preparedness of Roadmap & Draft Plan of Action on Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) was also organized for States/UTs, inter-alia, discussing various convergent strategies for taking forward the intended plan.

Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Shri Giriraj Singh on 7^th December, 2021 released the report on LSDGs through Panchayati Raj Institutions prepared by an Expert Committee constituted in this Ministry. The Committee in its report has identified 9 themes aggregating 17 SDGs for action at local (Gram Panchayat) level as a way forward for attainment of SDGs by the year 2030. These 9 themes are (i) Poverty free and enhanced livelihoods village, (ii) Healthy village, (iii) Child friendly village, (iv) Water sufficient village, (v) Clean and Green village, (vi) Self-sufficient infrastructure in village, (vii) Socially secured village, (viii) Village with good governance and (ix) Women-friendly village (earlier called as Engendered development in village).

Background

Panchayats play a pivotal role in implementing flagship schemes/programmes for attainment of SDGs. Incentivizing the Panchayats in form of awards is an integral part of creating a healthy and competitive ecosystem for holistic implementation of developmental plans. Therefore, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has been incentivizing the best performing Panchayats/States/UTs through National Panchayat Awards under the Incentivization of Panchayats scheme, one of the central components of Centrally Sponsored scheme of revamped Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA). These awards are usually given annually on 24^th April, celebrated as National Panchayati Raj Day to commemorate the 73^rd Constitution Amendment Act, 1992 which came into force with effect from 24^th April, 1993.

To nudge PRIs for a systematic planning, implementation, monitoring and accountability towards achieving SDGs at the Panchayat level, the National Panchayat Awards have been revamped to establish a multi-level pyramidical structure of awards competition at Block, District, State/UT and National Level aligning it with 9 Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) themes with the aim to:

1. Assess the performance of PRIs in attainment of SDGs through 9 identified themes
2. Promote competitive spirit among PRIs
3. Catalyze the process of ‘Localization of SDGs through PRIs’ and sensitizing the PRIs about significance of attaining LSDG by 2030

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