The restructuring of the Rural Development Blocks has been approved by the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann under an aim to bring major administrative reforms to provide administrative system and services in rural areas. The initiatives have been taken to link these blocks to the district boundaries.
It is expected that it will result in overall enhancement of administrative efficacy. This was decided in this respect during a cabinet meeting here today presided over by the Chief Minister.
Stating this, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office added that the development authority lies in making the blocks at par with the respective districts and it is likely to give a major boost to the districts of Sangrur, Malerkotla, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (Mohali) and Patiala.
The aim of this reorganization is to provide improved coordination between the block and district level administration, more rationalization in the planning and implementation of rural development plans, and hassle-free development schemes, and also to do away with the parallelism of the administrative work which was a major cause of delays and tardy output. Research has been conducted critically in the process that concerns administrative boundaries and requirement of functioning in the reorganisation process.
The spokesperson also added that the required legal and administrative processes have been undertaken in the course of the reorganization. The state government would thus be able to strengthen planning and monitoring mechanism at the district level, integrated smooth combination of block and district level data and decision making system, ease of access of service to citizens and Panchayati Raj Institutions and more efficient implementation of central as well as state based rural development programmes with this move.
The development blocks that are reorganised will take effect upon publication of the notification in the official gazette.
The spokesperson went further to say that over the time all stakeholders have been kept informed including field officers, the elected representatives and even the general population. In the same way, the updated maps and the administration orders will also appear on the official site of the Rural development department timely. Such reforms present a bent of Punjab government in times of transparent, accountable as well as decentralised rural governance.
