All the panchayat secretariats in Jharkhand will be equipped with modern facilities by the end of this next financial year.

The cabinet has recently sanctioned Rs 50 crore to augment facilities at the panchayat secretariats across 4,345 panchayats in the 24 districts of Jharkhand.

The infrastructure upgrade will include paved roads to all the gram panchayat secretariat buildings, pragya kendras (common services centres), ATM payment bank, Indian postal bank branch, banking correspondents, internet facilities through postpaid net connections, WiFi connection at a speed of about 100 Mbps.

“Apart from this, there will be facilities of electricity connections, drinking water, proper hygiene and sanitation, robust security arrangements, installation of LED TVs, computers along with inverters,” said an official of the state panchayati raj department.

“The blueprint of the panchayat secretariat strengthening scheme has been prepared following the suggestion of the chief minister Hemant Soren. This step is being taken to ensure that the benefits of services and schemes run by the state government are seamlessly extended to the rural pockets of the state. To achieve this, the gram panchayat secretariat building will be modernised with the latest technology,” said panchayati raj department director Nisha Oraon.

The director felt that installation of the facilities would enable villagers to avail benefits of the government schemes and get linked with benefits without having to visit block offices, several kilometres away from their village.

“The amount of grant received from the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission to secure the implementation of the schemes is made available to the panchayats, but the amount of the Central Finance Commission is spent under the guidelines issued by the government of India.

“As a result, it is difficult to ensure continuous availability of services and facilities with the grant amount of the Finance Commission,” admitted an official of the panchayati raj department.

“The state government will spend an additional amount to ensure the availability of basic infrastructure and minimum service to the villagers in the gram panchayat secretariat building.