Haryana adds teeth to panchayats, can spend ₹20 lakh on their own

CHANDIGARH: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who held an informal cabinet meeting in New Delhi on Monday, decided to give power to panchayats to spend ₹20 lakh on their own. Hitherto, this amount which a panchayat could spend on its own was ₹10 lakh. There are over 6,000 panchayats in the state.

Stating that the decision will be implemented from April 1, agriculture minister OP Dhankar said likewise, jila parishad and panchayat samitis will too get funds to spend on their own.

“Our aim is to make panchayati raj insititutions (PRIs) more independent,” he said, and added that the funds from the Haryana rural development fund (HRDF) will also be released to PRIs from April 1.

When asked the rationale behind appointing officials in the Jila Parishad, Dhankar clarified that these employees were not above or parallel to the elected representatives but were there to assist them.