Sikkim bags two awards at National Panchayati Raj Day celebrations

SIKKIM STANDS THIRD IN PANCHAYAT EMPOWERMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY; MELLI DARA PAIYONG RECEIVES RASHTRIYA GAURAV GRAM SABHA PURASKAR
GANGTOK, 25 April: Melli Dara Paiyong Gram Panchayat Unit has been conferred with Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar 2011. The award, instituted by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, was received by the president of the GPU, Ganesh K Rai, at a special function held in New Delhi on Sunday to commemorate National Panchayati Raj Day.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj had declared the period from 02 October 2009 to 02 October 2010 as Year of the Gram Sabha and those Gram Panchayats which conducted Gram Sabha in excellent manner were awarded.

The award was handed over by the Minister for Panchayati Raj, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Mani Shankar Aiyar, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi yesterday. The award carried a cash component of Rs. 10 lakh.
Melli Dara Paiyong is in the illustrious company of six other GPUs from across the country to be feted with this prestigious award which the Ministry explains in these terms: “In order to appreciate and devise an appropriate structure of incentives and  to recognize and encourage the Panchayats for outstanding performance through effective Gram Sabhas,  especially in respect of improvements in the social and economic structure of the village, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has  instituted National level Awards for Best Gram Sabhas and name it as Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha”.
Melli Dara Paiyong is a deserving winner, having blazed an impressive trail in Panchayati Raj activities in Sikkim and has already been honoured with the Best Performing Gram Panchayat award by the State in the past.
Sikkim also received the Panchayat Empowerment and Accountability Incentive Scheme [PEAIS] award which carries a sum of Rs. 1 crore. The award was received by Arvind Kumar, Principal Resident Commissioner, on behalf of the Government of Sikkim.
PEAIS was  implemented by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in 2005-06 to motivate states to empower the Panchayats by devolving funds, functions and functionaries (3Fs). The scheme aims at encouraging the States for empowering the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and putting in place mechanism for transparency and accountability of the PRIs. Performance of the States in these respects is measured through a Devolution Index (DI) formulated by an independent institution.
This year in addition to the cumulative achievement of the state, the DI study also took into account incremental achievement since 1st April 2009.For 2010-11, the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi was engaged for the task of preparation of DI and ranking the States.
In the rankings which emerged, Sikkim stood on the third position in the national level, with only Kerala and Karnataka ahead of it.