Ministry of Panchayati Raj

Ministry of Panchayati Raj is responsible for the work of advocacy for and monitoring of the implementation of Constitution 73rd Amendment Act the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996.

E-PANCHAYAT

As per the World Bank, "E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government." Government of India (GoI), with an intention to transform the governance landscape by ensuring participation of citizens in policy making and providing ease of access to information to the citizens, introduced the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in 2006. The vision of the NeGP was to "Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man." e- Panchayat is one of the Mission Mode Project (MMP), currently being implemented with a vision to empower and transform rural India.

As a first step towards formulating the project, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj constituted an Expert Group in June, 2007 under the Chairmanship of Dr. B.K. Gairola, Director General, NIC, Government of India. The Expert Group was entrusted with the task of assessing the IT Programmes of Ministry of Panchayati Raj and recommending cost effective solutions along with the cost implications. Adopting a consultative approach, the Committee interacted with the States/UTs to assess the existing status of computerisation up to the Gram Panchayat level, including the initiatives undertaken by the State Governments. In order to understand the ground realities, the Committee conducted field visits to some of the Gram Panchayats in the selected rural areas where some IT initiatives had been undertaken. Inputs from eminent experts in the public and private sector were also taken into account as part of the consultative process. In essence, it found that while some computerisation efforts had already been made at Panchayat level by States like Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Goa, these attempts were limited as they were driven by short term goals and were unable to completely transform Panchayats due to lack of a holistic perspective. It was felt that a more comprehensive approach was required to make a cognisable impact on the functioning of the Panchayats for the benefit of the citizens. These recommendations formed the basis for the conceptualisation of ePanchayat MMP.

The e-Panchayat project holds great promise for the rural masses as it aims to transform the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) into symbols of modernity, transparency and efficiency. This is one of its kind nationwide IT initiative introduced by Ministry of Panchayati Raj that endeavours to ensure people's participation in programme decision making, implementation and delivery. The project aims to automate the functioning of the 2.45 lakh Panchayats in the country. The project addresses all aspects of Panchayats' functioning including Planning, Monitoring, Implementation, Budgeting, Accounting, Social Audit and delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licenses etc.

The Ministry was created on 27 May 2004, with Mani Shankar Aiyar being the first minister.

Cabinet Ministers

• Note: ^† Died in office

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death)	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
			From	To	Period
		Mani Shankar Aiyar (born 1941) MP for Mayiladuthurai	23 May 2004	22 May 2009	4 years, 364 days	Indian National Congress	Manmohan I	Manmohan Singh
		C. P. Joshi (born 1950) MP for Bhilwara	28 May 2009	19 January 2011	1 year, 236 days		Manmohan II
		Vilasrao Deshmukh (1945–2012) MP for Maharashtra (Rajya Sabha)	19 January 2011	12 July 2011	174 days
		Kishore Chandra Deo (born 1947) MP for Aruku	12 July 2011	26 May 2014	2 years, 318 days
		Gopinath Munde (1949–2014) MP for Beed	27 May 2014	3 June 2014[†]	7 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi
		Nitin Gadkari (born 1957) MP for Nagpur	4 June 2014	9 November 2014	158 days
		Birender Singh (born 1946) MP for Haryana (Rajya Sabha)	9 November 2014	5 July 2016	1 year, 239 days
		Narendra Singh Tomar (born 1957) MP for Gwalior (until 2019) MP for Morena (from 2019)	5 July 2016	30 May 2019	5 years, 2 days
			31 May 2019	7 July 2021			Modi II
		Giriraj Singh (born 1957) MP for Begusarai	7 July 2021	Incumbent	2 years, 106 days

Ministers of State

Portrait		Minister (Birth-Death)	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
			From	To	Period
		Upendra Kushwaha (born 1960) MP for Karakat	26 May 2014	9 November 2014	167 days	Rashtriya Lok Samta Party	Modi I	Narendra Modi
		Nihalchand (born 1971) MP for Ganganagar	9 November 2014	5 July 2016	1 year, 239 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
		Parshottam Rupala (born 1954) MP for Gujarat (Rajya Sabha)	5 July 2016	30 May 2019	2 years, 329 days
		Kapil Patil (born 1961) MP for Bhiwandi	7 July 2021	Incumbent	2 years, 106 days		Modi II

• National Panchayati Raj Day
• E-Panchayat Mission Mode Project

• Official website