The Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi stressed upon the need for training and development of elected women representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to ensure that fruit of development may reach the grassroots level through their active participation and actual empowerment. She was addressing the function after inaugurating the 5thRegional Centre of National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) at SahibzadaAjitSingh Nagar (Mohali), Punjab today.NIPCCD is a premier organisation devoted to promotion of voluntary action, research, training, and documentation in the overall domain of women and children development.NIPCCD already has four such Regional Centres one each at Bangalore, Guwahati, Indore and Lucknow besides the Headquarters at New Delhi.The WCD Ministertook a round of the newly built centre at Mohali. She visited the Child Guidance Centre wherein on display were many playing tools/ materials exclusively prepared by NIPCCD for preschool children. She suggested that NIPCCD should start patenting the play materials developed and distribute the same at Anganwadis who can use the material for preschool training. She also informed that lakhs of women are suffering from various types of violence related problems and for helping them ‘One-Stop-Centres’ are being set up across the country including Punjab and Haryana.A cultural programme was also organized wherein the children of Child Care Institutions (CCIs) enthralled the audience. Song & Drama cultural troupe of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting gave a performance on BetiBachaoBetiPadhao theme.