Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu emphasised the importance of ensuring adequate female representation in all legislative bodies, including state legislatures and Parliament. He made this claim while praising the fact that women make up 46 percent of the country's 31.65 lakh elected legislators in rural local bodies.
In response to the vital function of Gram Sabhas in facilitating direct citizen engagement in local governance, Naidu stated that a legal framework governing the number of Gram Sabhas to be held each year is required and must be developed.
While taking note of the ministry’s proposal to make participation of the common citizens more intense in local self-governance, through Gram Sabhas, Naidu expressed concern that as things stand, participatory decision making through Gram Sabhas has not been up to the mark. “All states have not yet placed a definite legal framework on the number of Gram Sabhas to be held in a year and incentives to the elected members for participating in Gram Sabhas to make them vibrant. 'Because this is such a powerful medium, I urge all states to devote more resources to improving the situation,' Naidu said at the opening of the national stakeholders conference on 'localization of sustainable development goals.
'Giriraj Singh, the Minister of Panchayati Raj, has urged some states to organise panchayat elections so that rural local bodies can benefit from the numerous initiatives available to them. He also stated that the country cannot flourish without panchayat development. He emphasised the importance of having a master plan for all panchayats that is produced utilising cutting-edge technologies.
“Some states have not organised panchayat polls due to which 47,152 gram panchayats are not getting the benefits (of various schemes),” he said, adding he is writing to these states with a request to hold elections.
Meanwhile, Naidu said that funds allocated to rural local bodies should go directly into their accounts and that there should be no diversion, dilution, or deviation from the 10th Finance Commission's allocation of Rs 100 per capita per annum to the 15th Finance Commission's allocation of Rs 674 per capita per annum.
The vice-president also took an apparent dig at Pakistan over its political turmoil. “Of course, the next big country is our neighbour. But there is no democracy. We don't know what is happening there. I don't know whether they also know it or not. I don't want to comment on that. But it is a reality, we are a democracy at all levels,” he said.
Naidu added that no other country in the world has as many democratic institutions at different levels as India, which has 2.78 lakh local bodies in rural areas.
