Chandigarh: Taking a step forward towards complete digitization of villages by uploading the entire records of all developmental activities of villages as well as of various government departments on a single digital platform, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal recently launched ‘Gram Darshan’ portal, thereby making the accessibility of data of as many as 6,197 Gram Panchayats of the state just a click away.

“With the launch of Gram Darshan, now the complete details of the completed, ongoing and required development projects of every village in Haryana will be digitally available and anyone sitting anywhere in the world will be able to see the details of any Gram Panchayats while sitting at their home,” said Chief Minister Khattar.

He said that it was the vision of the State Government that every village in Haryana should have its own website so as to ensure that villagers, especially youth should know the details of various developmental schemes and projects being allocated and run for their village so that as per their requirements they can also put forth their demands to the State Government. Keeping this in view the scheme ‘Gram Darshan’ has been launched.

“The vision of Gram Darshan is to make all government services accessible to the common citizens in their locality, through the Gram Panchayat websites and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services to realise their basic needs,” said the Chief Minister.

Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said that the 'Gram Darshan’ concept could address these challenges comprehensively and would provide the required information to the rural citizens with a click of the button. The detailed guidelines and related information about the development schemes of all the Departments would be uploaded at one platform, that is, ‘Gram Darshan’, which will be very helpful for rural citizens. ‘Gram Darshan’ will assist in enhancing the credibility of Gram Panchayats and act as a source of information for rural citizens, he asserted.

‘Gram Darshan’ will help in better implementation of the schemes of rural development and aim to uplift the life of the poorest of the poor who live in the remotest and underdeveloped parts of India” said the Deputy Chief Minister.

Principal Secretary, Development and Panchayats Department, Sudhir Rajpal said the key objectives of ‘Gram Darshan’ are to use Information and communication technology (ICT) to make the Gram Darshan act as a hub of information for rural citizens, bring in better transparency, accountability, efficiency and RTI compliance of Panchayats.

It also aims to improve the governance of local self-government, providing easier, faster and cheaper access to the information uploaded by the line departments. Contribute towards social empowerment by engaging all sections of the community in the task of village development and create and sustain a culture of cooperative living for inclusive and rapid development, he informed.

Rajpal said the portal has been developed on the lines of participative democracy and the data of 10 Gram Panchayats have already been uploaded on the ‘Gram Darshan’ portal. He said ‘Gram Darshan’ refers to the website of Gram Panchayats which will act as a holistic, participatory, transparent and accountable face of Gram Panchayats. It aims to provide a unique identity to each Gram Panchayat, which will act as the cyber face of Panchayats. There will be a dynamic website of all Gram Panchayats.

According to Rajpal, each of the Gram Panchayat websites would display details of elected representatives, including Sarpanch, Panches and Gram Sachiv of Gram Panchayat. Besides this, a list of public assets, details of assets already created or being created by the department or by any other line department of the State will also be uploaded on the website.

Gram Panchayats would also upload details of financial assets like Fixed Deposits and Committed expenses like salaries etc, he informed. He said that due to the ongoing Pandemic COVID-19, Gram Panchayats are unable to hold the Gram Sabha meetings. Hence, the concept of e-Gram Sabha has been launched by the State of Haryana. /BI/