Panchayat’, being “Local Government”, is a State subject and part of the State List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Panchayats are set up and operate through the respective State Panchayati Raj Acts, which may vary from State to State, subject to the provisions of the Constitution. The performance and development of the Panchayats depend on the extent of powers and resources devolved to them by the States concerned. Accordingly, all matters relating to Panchayats, including effective functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), strengthening the institutional mechanism to ensure the accountability of PRIs towards people and their performance monitoring and evaluation, come within the jurisdiction of the State Government.

The Government's priority for developing the Panchayati Raj System is to position Panchayats and their elected representatives as the core of rural transformation. This includes making Panchayats the hubs of service delivery for various subjects and fostering the development of their own revenue sources.

The Ministry has been implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) with the major objective of Capacity Building & Training (CB&T) of Elected Representatives, Functionaries, and other stakeholders of Panchayats across all States/UTs, including Karnataka for improving Panchayat Governance. Under the scheme of RGSA, the Ministry supplements the efforts of States and UTs in building Panchayat infrastructure at a limited scale, with particular focus on the North-Eastern States. Under this scheme, the Ministry assists with key infrastructure elements within Panchayats, including the Panchayat Bhawan and Computers & peripherals.

In addition, under the scheme, projects aimed at innovation, economic development, and income enhancement have been supported across States/UTs, including Karnataka. The project approved for the State of Karnataka under the economic development and income enhancement component is titled “Sustainable Support for Production and Marketing of Affordable Packaged Nutritious Food Products Produced by Empowered Rural SHG Women with the Support of Gram Panchayats” during FY 2022–23, amounting to Rs. 3.17 crores.

The Government supports the Panchayati Raj Institutions by releasing Grants as per recommendation of the Fifteenth Finance Commission (XV FC) to the tune of Rs. 60,750 crores for the interim period FY 2020-21 and Rs.2,36,805 crore for the period FY 2021-26 to Panchayats in all the three tiers and Traditional Local Bodies and Sixth Schedule areas in 28 States including Karnataka.

The details of XV FC Grants released to the State of Karnataka for the FY 2022-2025 are as under:

 

To strengthen the functioning of PRIs across the country, this Ministry has launched eGramSwaraj, a user-friendly web-based portal, which aims at increasing transparency through decentralized planning, progress reporting, financial management, work-based accounting and details of assets created.The eGramSwaraj portal has also been integrated with the Public Financial Management System for online transfer of the Central Finance Commission funds by the States to PRIs and enabling Panchayats to make real-time payments to vendors/service providers. Panchayats prepare and upload their Annual Panchayat Development Plans on the eGramSwaraj portal.

The Ministry has been rolling out the People’s Plan Campaign as ‘Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas’ since 2018 for the preparation of evidence-based, holistic and inclusive Development Plans at the grassroots level in a structured manner, including Gram/Village Panchayats, Block/Intermediate Panchayats and District Panchayats. The main objective is active participation of Sarpanches, Panchayat members and residents to facilitate the identification of local development issues, needs and priorities, and based on the same thematic Sankalp is taken for the preparation of a comprehensive Gram Panchayat Development Plan, aiming at the saturation of services and infrastructure in all the sectors contained in a particular theme.

For the Plan Year/FY 2024-25, 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats have prepared and uploaded their Annual Development Plans (GPDPs) on the eGramSwaraj portal. In addition, the Ministry has integrated eGramSwaraj with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to bring transparency to Panchayat procurement. This integration allows Panchayats to procure goods and services through GeM via the eGramSwaraj platform, promoting the “Vocal for Local” initiative.

Further, an online application ‘AuditOnline’ has been developed for online audits of Panchayat accounts and their financial management. AuditOnline portal, launched in April 2020, facilitates transparent auditing of Central Finance Commission funds utilization and strengthens the financial management of Panchayats.

The Ministry has also launched the Panchayat NIRNAY portal, a real-time monitoring system for local self-governance in rural India at the Gram Panchayat level. It deals with Gram Sabha Meetings- scheduling, notifying citizens with the meeting’s agenda well in advance, enhancing public participation in Panchayat Meetings, recording and enabling panchayat decisions for ready reference, bringing about transparency and accountability of panchayat functionaries in panchayat decision making and its implementation in Gram Panchayats. It also facilitates Panchayats for best practices sharing across the country. It facilitates a completely automated online workflow for the Gram Sabha management system, substituting the paper-based manual process. The primary objective of the “Panchayat NIRNAY” portal is to make the Gram Sabha meetings more participatory, transparent and vibrant.

Further, the Ministry of Rural Development, as a part of the Panchayati Raj Institution -Community Based Organisation (PRI- CBO) convergence provided PRIs training orientation on the Village Prosperity Resilience Plan (VPRP) and how to strengthen collective planning to bridge development gaps by collective responsibility. This was done at the block level during August to September, 2025.

Through PRI-CBO convergence, 804 Gram Panchayat Coordination Committees (GPCC ) have been formed as a Grassroots forum, in 804 out of 5954 Gram Panchayats in the state of Karnataka. These GPCCs cover 34 blocks out of 238 blocks in the State. These forums work on strengthening collaboration among all development stakeholders and ensuring effective implementation of the demands incorporated in the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).

This information was given by Union Minister Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on 10^th December 2025.

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