UP govt to prepare panchayat report cards

Lucknow, Sep 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Uttar Pradesh government has initiated the process of preparing and implementing the panchayat development index (PDI) as mandated by the Centre to achieve localised sustainable development goals (LSDGs) through panchayats.

PDI is the report card of the progress of panchayats and scales up the visibility of the development at the grassroots.

Official sources said that Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra has issued a GO in this regard in the light of the recent directions by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, putting in place various committees to monitor and implement the PDI.

“The chief secretary issued a GO with regard to the PDI framework here on September 20, constituting committees with an immediate effect,” a senior Panchayati Raj Department official said.

India is a signatory to the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

“Panchayats being pivotal in achieving the SDGs, Ministry of Panchayati Raj has initiated a thematic approach by aggregating 17 SDGs into nine broad themes to localise the SDGs at grassroot-level through panchayats,” Union Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Sunil Kumar said in a letter to the Chief Secretary.

While the SDGs India Index developed by the NITI Ayog, he said, measured SDGs process across states using select indicators from the National Indicator Framework (NIF), till recently there was no mechanism in place for measuring the progress of localised SDGs, made by panchayats.

“The baseline report of the PDI 2023-24 will be based on the data as of March 31, 2023,” Kumar said in the letter.

Under the GO issued by the Chief Secretary, a state-level Panchayat Development Index committee under the Chief Secretary has been constituted to implement and monitor the PDI that will be prepared every year on the line of the state development index.

The agriculture production commissioner has been made the vice-chairman of the committee.

Source: IANS