Advisor to Governor K. Vijay Kumar Saturday called for strengthening the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) to boost rural development, facilitate participatory democracy and reinforce accountability at the grassroots level.The Advisor was speaking at a workshop of Master Resource Persons here at Panchayat Bhawan Jammu. The Master Resource Persons would train the elected representatives of Local Bodies in the state.During the workshop the Master Resource Persons were provided training material that shall be used during the training of the newly elected members of PRIs starting from January, 15, 2019.Advisor Kumar spoke on the importance of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in transforming rural landscape by ensuring development at ground level and strengthening democratic setup.He said that holistic development of villages is possible only when the Panchayat members fulfill their responsibilities. He said that such training programmes would go a long way in building capacities of the elected representatives and help them to understand their roles and responsibilities and enable them to discharge their legitimate duties.
Kumar emphasized on the trainers to train the newly elected Sarpanchs by taking cue from the ground realities and specific needs of their areas.He said that training should also be imparted regarding guidelines of all the centrally sponsored schemes so that the same are implemented efficiently at the ground level.He also instructed that Gram Sabhas should be held in the villages for proper planning of works as per their needs and priorities.Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Sheetal Nanda also spoke on the occasion and briefed the Master Resource Persons regarding the process and contents of course modules.A total of 14 Course modules have been designed and supplemented with powerpoint presentations and audio-visual aids to make training more effective.It was given out that 3514 trainees shall be covered in four batches comprising 45 to 50 trainees per batch across all the districts.Director RDD Jammu, Director Panchayats, Director RDD Kashmir, besides Master Resource Persons drawn from DPOs/BDOs participated in the workshop.