Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday announced sports competitions at the Panchayat (village council) level to promote sports culture in the rural areas.
Addressing a gathering at the Tohana’s Bidhai Khera village, he said that these sports competitions will be organised at village, block and district level by the Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad.
He said that there would be 12 types of sports in these competitions. Khattar called the panchayats a third Government and that the State Government has given them lots of power.
“The previous Governments did not give power to the Panchayats, but our Government has given them power to get development works done on their own. The money belongs to the Panchayats and they can spend it accordingly. They can pass the resolution and get the development work done in their area,” he added.
The CM said in order to financially empower the panchayats, the facility of giving 2 percent of the stamp duty to the Panchayats has also been initiated.
“In the last quarter of this financial year, a budget of Rs 1,100 Crore has been released to the Panchayats for development works in the villages. Inter district council has also been formed to strengthen the Panchayats,” he added.
Khattar said a scale has been set to ensure transparency in development works. “The public is also happy with the advent of transparency. The development works are done in the villages, but for their maintenance; the retired people with the help of sarpanches should maintain them,” he added.
“The Gram Darshan portal has been created so that the people can directly reach the government for the development work in the villages. He said the state government is delivering the benefit of every scheme to the last mile person through the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP),” said the Chief Minister.
According to the Chief Minister, the data collected in the Parivar Pehchan Patra has been divided into different categories according to the age group and the responsibility of each category has been assigned to a department.