Pune: In response to complaints about the working of Gram Panchayats and accessibility of Gram Sevaks, the Pune Division Commissionerate has come up with a new set of rules and regulations to ensure an efficient and timely working of the panchayats.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Pune Divisional Commissioner Chandrakant Dalvi said that there were complaints from villagers that their assigned Gram Sevaks remain unavailable to them when needed.
“Each sevak usually should have a charge of two panchayats. But we have noticed that some sevaks are given more than 3-4 panchayats. There are other issues like too much interference by the Panchayat Samiti in the sevaks’ duty, frequent meetings held by officials and the timings of service of the sevak,” Dalvi said.
“There are 3,922 required appointments of Gram Panchayats in the Pune Division, of which 3,764 are recruited and only 158 remain vacant. The vacancies across the division are Pune-28, Satara-42, Sangli-32, Solapur-38 and Kolhapur-18,” Dalvi said, informing that the last recruitment for Gram Sevaks happened two years ago.
Dalvi also assured that the implementations of rules will be promptly monitored and reviewed. “Action will be taken against the erring Gram Sevaks or BDO. There will be boards displaying the rules outside of the Panchayats and the CEOs will hold meetings with panchayats and related officials,” Dalvi said.
New rules for Gram Panchayats
A Gram Sevak will have to remain available for at least five days per week in their assigned panchayats.
The meetings with officials will happen only twice a month on the first and third Mondays between 10 am and 2 pm.
To avoid unnecessary summoning of the sevak to the panchayat, the permission of the Block Development Office (BDO) will be required.
There will be fixed timings for the sevaks. The sevaks usually come to work around 10.30 am but by then, the villagers are already in their fields. Henceforth, the sevaks will have to be present at the panchayat at 9 am.
Meetings will be conducted only in fixed slots where each department will have a fixed time slot and the BDO will overlook all meetings.
1.65 crore files scrutinised and processed
Chandrakant Dalvi, the Pune Divisional Commissioner, said, that more than 1.65 crore files had been scrutinised in offices across Pune since Zero Pendency procedures began on May 1, 2017. Of them, 69.76 lakh files weighing 767 metric tonnes, were destroyed by shredding, 55.28 lakh matters were disposed of and resolved. Around 23,000 employees were involved in these processes. The number of files pending for more than three months, according to Dalvi, is around 36,000, which are being closely monitored.
