“The amount will be allocated among the districts on the basis of the tribal population and funds will be placed with the district planning committee, which will decide the schemes and projects to be implemented by the PRIs through the district rural development agency (DRDA),” official sources said.
Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu in his Independence Day speech disclosed that Rs 5 crore would be allocated as an honorarium to be paid to the PRI members for attending panchayat meetings at various levels. Sources said to enable the PRIs to meet the expenditure towards telephone, stationary and establishment costs, the government has decided to allocate Rs 50,000 per year per zilla parishad and Rs 25,000 per anchal samiti. Khandu, in his speech, also highlighted that the PRIs would be actively involved in the implementation of various Centrally sponsored schemes like Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Swarna Gramin Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), Hariyali as per the Centre’s guidelines and the National Bamboo Mission both for the forest and non-forest areas would be implemented through the PRIs and the horticulture and Forest Department would work out modalities for implementing the mission. “The Total Sanitation Programme will also be transferred to the PRIs and the modalities will be worked out by the public health engineering department (PHED),” the Chief Minister disclosed, adding repair and maintenance of water supply scheme for which 12th Finance Commission (TFC) grants were being received, would be implemented by the PRIs through PHED as the implementing agency. Selection and monitoring of works and release of funds would be done by the PRIs, besides issuance of utilization certificates, the CM said.