Kolkata, June 15 (IANS) The West Bengal government and the World Bank on Wednesday announced that their collaborative project on institutional strengthening of Gram Panchayats (ISGP) will be extended to all rural bodies in the state entailing a tentative expenditure of Rs 1,783 crore.
In the first phase, the programme was executed in 1000 gram panchayats since its inception in 2010.
In the second phase, for the next five years, all 3,3,42 gram panchayats across the state's 19 districts will come under the ambit of the programme, state Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee told media persons here.
The World Bank will provide an assistance of Rs 1,372 crore for phase two. The remaining amount has to be borne by the state government.
World Bank official Soma Ghosh Moulik said the project has now become a model for others with its success in ensuring rural bodies adopt a performance-based mechanism to reach out public services to the people.
It has also helped improve the economic health of the local bodies through a better revenue and tax mop-up.
The objective of the project is to help support the development of stronger, better capacitated, and performing Gram Panchayats delivering enhanced local services and infrastructure.
