Jharkhand Govt to Implement PESA Rules at Village Level for Tribal Empowerment

Ranchi: The Jharkhand govt on Tuesday said the state’s PESA rules “will no longer remain confined to paper documents” and that their impact would now be made visible on the ground through coordinated implementation up to the village-panchayat level.

Addressing a state-level round-table conference organised by the Panchayati Raj Department, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister Deepika Pandey Singh announced that a PESA coordination committee would be constituted to ensure continuous review and time-bound resolution of obstacles.

“All the departments would work together to implement PESA rules. The rules fulfil the broader demands of tribal areas and that work is underway to make Jharkhand’s PESA framework a model for the country,” she said.

She added, "Our aim is to implement the PESA rules at the grassroots level in a transparent manner and today’s round table conference was organised to discuss how to take it further.”

Singh said in the new rules brought by the state govt recently, priority has been given to women for the first time in the post of assistant secretary in the Gram Sabha.

Speaking on the issue of non-tribal gram pradhans in scheduled areas, the minister said the govt would take initiative at its own level. She urged wider efforts so that the maximum number of people in scheduled areas benefit from the rules and said it was everyone’s responsibility to understand the rights granted to Gram Sabhas and take positive initiative to secure them.

Former National Advisory Council member and Jharkhand Congress affairs in-charge, K Raju said, “Jharkhand has the best PESA rules in the country. This was acknowledged even by those studying national-level policy formulation and rules. The rules are better than the model rule of the country. The challenge now is its effective implementation. Our objective is to decentralise power at grassroot.”

Rural Development and Panchayati Raj secretary Manoj Kumar said the rules would be a milestone for village transformation and rights protection. “The rules are also being translated into local languages and backed by training and publicity campaigns,” he said. Panchayati Raj director Rajeshwari B added more than 150 objections were received on two occasions before finalisation, and several were incorporated.

Some civil society members and NGOs pointed out that portions of the rules need to be reviewed and the minister asked them to get in touch with the department regarding those.