Give full freedom to PRIs: Dr C.P. Joshi

Give full freedom to PRIs: Dr C.P. Joshi

Prof. (Dr.) C.P. Joshi, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways delivered the 16th Prof. G. Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture on ‘Rural Empowerment and Panchayati Raj Institutions’ at the Convention Centre at IGNOU campus on July 2.

The minister also inaugurated the new administration building and activated the Remote Access to e-resources (RATE). This remote access service empowers users both at on-campus and off-campus to get access to e-resources, e-journals, e-books from home, office, or from anywhere, 24x7 days. RATE has been made open to academics, faculty, Regional Centers, Research and Teaching Assistants (RTAs), researchers and to on-campus students at the initial level.

“The Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) are playing an important role in the implementation of educational projects and programmes in rural areas. They can also play a significant role in effective implementation of distance education programmes in rural India. The task at hand, therefore, is to accelerate the process of interaction of citizen in general and youth and women in particular with the Panchayati Raj Institutions,” said Prof. (Dr.) C.P. Joshi while emphasizing on the participative democracy model.

“With the 73rd constitutional amendment and election to the PRIs, more than 3 million representatives have been elected. They have given India the distinction of being the largest democracy in the world. The most significant factor which determines the success of Local Self Governments (LSGs) is the participation of common man in the process of development,” said the minister.

However, he pointed out that the full potential of the 73rd Amendment is yet to be harnessed. Barring few states, in most of them, Panchayati Raj systems are not adequately and actively involved in development activities.

He said that it will be realized only when the functions, functionaries and funds with full freedom are transferred to the PRIs and “IGNOU has taken up this responsibility in all earnestness to cover the unreached by democratizing education in India.”

“There is a need for sensitizing representatives of PRIs for creating a responsive, responsible, representative, transparent, accountable and dynamic local government, so that these representatives as well as the functionaries of LSG should perceive common people as participants in the development process and not as supplicants, beneficiaries or petitioners.”

“Participatory democracy is needed today to solve their problems to bring forth all the issues and address them. Skilled manpower is needed by 2020, when we project this don’t we think that those in the rural areas are from vulnerable section? If we don’t enhance their skills how are we then going to fit in our vision?” he concluded.

While marveling the scope of education and capacity building in India, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai in his welcome address said that, “With the remarkable achievements of Gyan Vani, Gyan Darshan and other internet connectivity sources of the university, it is considered to be the technological university in the country connecting millions of people. With thousands of telecenters soon coming up with the help of the university, it is going to be the national e-governance provider.”

“We are the first central university to launch its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) which now has reduced the manual work of the university officials for the back office operations (like recruitment, leaves, sundry bills etc). Things which are meant to be done on a routine basis are now done with the help of ERP powered by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS),” said Prof. Latha Pillai, Pro VC, IGNOU.

IGNOU has contributed enormously in the areas of rural empowerment. For instance, under the Schools of Agriculture, Continuing Education, Extension and Development Studies, the Chair for Sustainable Development, a host of programmes have been created for upgrading the knowledge and the skills of people in the rural areas as well as those working in the area of rural development. Apart from these programmes, many other Schools, programmes and projects have directly and indirectly lead to rural empowerment also.