IT to empower Panchayati Raj institutions

BANGALORE, INDIA: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj today announced it was working with the National Informatics Center (NIC) to build generic software solutions that could be used by the Panchayati Raj institutions across States.

This initiative has already given birth to National Panchayat Portral, a one-step portal and content management framework that hosts independent website of the Panchayati Raj, State Panchayati Raj Departments and PRIs at all levels, said an official statement.

NPP generates dynamic websites and provides a simple content management frame work for PRIs to manage and publish their content. The sites are local language- enabled and each site can easily exchange content with all other PRIs sites.

NIC has also developed a software named Plan Plus through an iterative process of discussion and field-testing in States. The software captures the entire work flow relating to plan formulation involving rural and urban local governments as well as line departments at district level and consolidation of plan by the District Planning Committee.

PRIA Soft (Panchayati Raj Institutions Accounting Software) is another software developed by NIC as part of this initiative. The software facilitates maintenance of accounts of Panchayats. It captures the voucher level receipt and expenditure detail. The software, which is in use in a few states, is being customizes to meet state-specific requirements.