The Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, Government of India, Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil has reviewed the Centrally Sponsored Schemes during his two days visit to Tripura on 8th to 9th January, 2024.

The Secretary of PWD, Social Welfare and Social Education, RD including Panchayat, CEO of Tripura Rural Livelihood Mission and other High Officials of other Departments remain present in the meeting which has been convened at State Guest House on 8th January, 2024. The review has been started with the performance evaluation of Panchayat Department in implementing Centrally Sponsored Schemes and Grants.

The Panchayat Department is getting Central Finance Commission Grants by which different developmental activities such as Roads, Water, Sanitation, Drainage Channel, Community Sanitation Point, Compost Pit, Soak Pit, Twin Pit, Solid and Liquid Waste Management etc. are used to be caried out. The Panchayat Department received Rs. 508.60 crore under XVth Finance Commission till date and Rs. 336.69 crore has already been incurred.

The Panchayat Department also used to get another Central assistance under Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan which is used for construction of Panchayat Bhawan, Procurement of Computer, Capacity Building of the Elected Representatives and Functionaries of Panchayat Raj Institutions and other relevant aspects for strengthening the Panchayati Raj System.

As on date total of Rs. 10.11 crore has been incurred by which 27 number Panchayat Bhawan, 2 number District Panchayat Resource Centre have been constructed and 2 number are in progress. Total 8 number Panchayat Learning Centre have been set up.

With the initiative of DIT and TRLM total 27 number mobile CSC van has been provided to women SHG federation to provide G2C services to the rural women. For providing financial protections to the women SHG members, so far TRLM has been able to enrolled 2.03 lakh SHG members under PMJJBY and 2.50 lakh SHG members under PMSBY insurance.

The performance of Social Welfare and Social Education Department has been reviewed next. Total 133752 number beneficiaries are given pension under Indira Gandhi national Old Age Pension Scheme and among the total figure, 121813 are from 60-79 years age group and 11939 are above 80 years of age. Total 17632 number beneficiaries are given pension under Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme and 2076 number beneficiaries under Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme. Out of the released fund of Rs. 3187.60 lakhs, Rs. 2903.67 lakhs have been incurred till November, 2023. Under National Family Benefit Scheme, 253 beneficiaries have given benefit and amount of Rs. 50.60 lakhs have been incurred out of the total released amount of Rs. 50.68 lakhs.

At the last, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has been reviewed. Under PMGSY-I, total 1322 number roads have been completed which stands to 4603.099 km out of the total sanctioned of 1361 number Total 36 number roads have been completed which equals to 265.239 km out of the total sanctioned figure of 42 number under PMGSY-II.

Total 32 roads for 231.64 kms has been sanctioned under PMGSY-III and the construction of all the 32 number roads are in progress. The PM-JANMAN scheme was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 15th November 2023 with an aim to uplift the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGS).

An amount of Rs. 7177.47022 lakhs have been placed to the Aspirational District i.e. Dhalai District under XVth Finance Commission Grants during the FY 2020-21 to 2023-24 (till date).

The Hon’ble Minister has appreciated the major achievements achieved by the Panchayat Department of Tripura such as enablement of UPI payment in all the Rural Local Bodies, launching of AAMAR Sarkar Portal for identifying the local issues, exposure visit for the elected representative and officials of Panchayats with tag line of Gram Anweshan, setting up of Walk Library at Arundhutinagar Panchayati Raj Training Institute etc and urge the Department to sustain similar kind of activities further in the State for upgrade the Panchayati system in more precise way.

The performance of RD Department has been reviewed and it has been presented that Tripura has received 4.12 Lakhs Houses from the Central Ministry and 3.15 Lakhs houses already completed. Since last two years, State has shown tremendous progress.

2.67 lakh houses have been completed with an average pace viz completion around 700 houses per day. State Government incurred an expenditure of Rs 4528 crore since inception of scheme. Out of this, an expenditure of around Rs 2781 crore incurred in the last 18 months. Such a huge expenditure boosted the rural economy and created huge employment opportunities.

In this financial year, the average daily expenditure under the scheme is around Rs 4 crore. Under, MGNREGA, Tripura has generated 18.71 Cr. person- days during last 05 (five) years. Total 4.75 lakh durable assets like all-weather roads, drains, irrigation channels, Anganwadi centers, roadside plantations, block plantations, individual plantations and water-bodies on the public and private land has been constructed and total expenditure of Rs. 4888.36 crore have been made.