Harwan, Palli panchayats dominates first ever Panchayat Rankings released by CS

Calls the rankings bedrock for evidence based planning and  acceleration of  development process

SRINAGAR, June 15: In what could be termed as a historic milestone in planning process, Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today released the rankings of Panchayats under the Aspirational Panchayat Development Programme (APDP), a J&K government initiative to assess the performance of these rural administrative units on key developmental parameters.

At the outset, the Chief Secretary complimented the whole team of Planning Development & Monitoring Department headed by Administrative Secretary, RaghavLangar for carrying out this massive exercise of data collection, compilation and ranking of Panchayats  using scientific criteria.

Dr Mehta called this exercise a foundation stone for adopting a more focused approach with several key datasets available with each District. He observed that these rankings have pinpointed the lacunae in each sector or area of the district thereby making  targetted  interventions possible.

He termed the rankings a significant achievement which has laid foundation for evidence based planning in future. He made out that these rankings tell us all about our endeavours made till now and the way forward. He urged all the Deputy Commissioners to thoroughly go through these rankings and formulate plans accordingly to fill the developmental voids pointed out in this ranking system.

Dr Mehta observed that this data has an added advantage of providing us a baseline to measure our progress in future. He exuded hope that in the years ahead with such planning process at our back, most of our problems would find resolution  expeditiously. He directed that all rankings may be made public in the shape of compendium so that people also have fair idea about the kind of interventions needed in their areas.

 He called it a tool towards ensuring good governance in the UT. He also advised creating a permanent dashboard for monitoring and updating these rankings monthly. He also directed the Housing & Urban Development Department for carrying out Town rankings in the days ahead on similar lines.

The first of its kind Panchayat rankings released today has put Syedpora, Harwan Panchayat of District Srinagar at first rank with a overall score of 91.69 out of 100. It is followed by Palli (Samba) with a score of 90.71, Balhama-A, Khonmoh (Srinagar) at  3rd spot with a score of 89.04. Then comes NarwalBala (Jammu) at 4th spot with score of 88.93, Nowgam-A (Srinagar) ranking 5th, Khonmoh-A (Srinagar) at 6th, Birpur Upper (Samba) at 7th, Theed-A, Dara-B of Srinagar at 8th and 9th rank with Gatha Panchayat of Baderwah (Doda) ranking 10th in the list of most developed Panchayats in the UT.

The lowest scoring Panchayats include Buglinder-B (49.78) of Tulail District Bandipora,  Dhakikote (50.01) of District Reasi, Channa-A (51.58) of Reasi, Panchalthan (51.77) in Anantnag, Bandhar (51.96) in Reasi, Neeru (51.97) in Tulail, Bandipora, Badhal-A (52.58) in Rajouri, Zadigye- B (52.73) in Bandipora, Balihote-B (52.94) in Ramban and Zadigye-A (53.46).

Out of the total of 4291 Panchayats, 73 fall in the score range of 50-60, 1054 in 60-70, 2359 in 70-80 and 807 Panchayats in the range of 80-90 across all the districts of J&K.

Regarding the procedure for determining the rankings of Panchayats it was informed that the APDP has been conceived on the analogy of ABDP of UT of J&K. It was revealed that 100 Parameters/Indicators across 09 sectors have been identified  for assessing 285 aspirational panchayats in consultation with the District Development Commissioners concerned.

The process included rating all the 4291 Panchayats spread over 285 Blocks and 20 Districts of the UT on socio-economic indicators concerning the lives of the people residing in the rural areas. One most backward panchayat in each block have been selected from 4291 Panchayats of UT of J&K, on the basis of least aggregate score obtained on the selected 100 parameters/ indicators in the Panchayat Development Index (PDI) in the concerned Block. The relevant data was then collected from the concerned districts.

These 100 measurable indicators identified across 9 Sectors namely Agriculture & allied Activities (6 indicators), Health & Nutrition (11), Education (13), Rural Development & Sanitation (7), Individual Beneficiary Oriented Schemes (4), Skill Development (4), Basic Infrastructure (17), Environment (5), & Good Governance (33) are providing insights into existing status and will also capture incremental progress over a period of time.

Additional financial assistance of Rs. 10 Lakh is being provided to the selected Panchayats for improving the key performance indicators mentioned in the Panchayat Development Index.

Among the Border area almost 77 Panchayats from 82 border Blocks fall in the aspirational panchayats programme. Out of these based on the set criterion the most backward Panchayat found through assessment is Buglinder-B from Block Tulail District Bandipore having score 49.78. While as, the last Aspirational Panchayat selected from Border Areas is Panchayat Nanga of Block Ramgarh, District Samba having a score of 79.59 making it the most developed Panchayat among the Border panchayats spread across 08 districts of the UT.

These rankings were today released by the Chief Secretary in presence of all the Administrative Secretaries, District Development Commissioners, HoDs of Planning, Finance and other concerned departments.