ITANAGAR, 2 Aug: The State Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (SIRDPR) conducted 10 district level sensitization programmes on social audit for newly elected ZPMs, member secretaries of district and gram panchayats, BDOs, APOs of the DRDA, the TA (RE), the EO (RE), panchayat technical assistants, CCAAs and CAs during February-March and July this year.
The programmes covered Tawang, West Kameng, East Kameng, Pakke-Kessang, Papum Pare, Lower Subansiri, Kamle, Upper Subansiri, Leparada and West Siang districts.
The participants, 493 in total, were sensitized to important RD and PR programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the National Social Assistance Programme, the 15th Finance Commission grants, the process of social audit, and the importance of social audit in implementing programmes in a transparent and accountable manner.
The programmes included hands-on training in document verification, compilation of findings for social audit, gram sabha recommendation, the process of jan sunwai, etc.
“With these series of sensitization training programmes, the task of the state social audit unit for conducting social audits in the above districts may be easy in the days to come, unlike other uncovered districts,” SIRDPR Director Habung Lampung stated in a release.
“The feedback received from all districts was to conduct such type of sensitization training on social audit at the block level instead of district level, so that all the primary stakeholders, especially gram chairpersons, GP members, SHG members, and village level government functionaries are covered as clientele groups,” Lampung said, adding that the institute plans to make such programmes part of its next year’s training calendar.
