National Seminar on Social Audit of Rural Development Programmes inaugurated

Delivering her address, the Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti expressed happiness at the effective implementation and monitoring of Rural Development Schemes across the Nation.

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Government's objective of bringing Good Governance through Transparency, Participation, and Accountability in all Government Schemes, the Ministry of Rural Development has decided to institutionalize social audits in its major schemes. To begin with, Social Audit Guidelines have been released today for National Social Assistance Program (NSAP) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana –Grameen (PMAY-G). The Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti inaugurated the 'National Seminar on Social Audit of Rural Development Programmes' today and released the guidelines for both the schemes namely NSAP and PMAY- G along with a report 'Status of Social Audits in India'.

Delivering her address, the Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti expressed happiness at the effective implementation and monitoring of Rural Development Schemes across the Nation. She said that in this era of social engineering, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi wants all the work to be done with transparency. She linked the Seminar with 'Sagar Manthan' and said that just like in 'Sagar Manthan', this seminar will also help in churning out vital points for the effective rollout of the schemes and their social audit. She also talked about PM's vision of taking out all citizens of India out of poverty by 2022 and said that the entire Ministry is working in that direction. She asserted that nothing is difficult as long as one is determined to complete the task and said that work will continue to be done in achieving these goals.

Delivering the keynotes address, the Secretary, Department of Rural Development expressed happiness over the progress made by several States in effectively undertaking various schemes of the Ministry and also the work is done on promoting & undertaking social audits. He said that all achievements are that of the people from Rural India and not those of the Ministry. Shri Sinha said that there is scope for exponential expansion in the field of social auditing and gave credit to the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj for working extensively in this field.

The two-day seminar has been organised at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 13th and 14th November 2019 jointly by the Department of Rural Development and National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. Secretary, Department of Rural Development Shri Amarjeet Sinha and other senior officers of the Ministry were also present during the inauguration and shared their thoughts. The objective of the two-day seminar is to understand the current status of social audits and Social Audit Units and develop a plan for the rollout of social audits in other programs.

The Seminar will take stock of the current status of Social Audits and SAUs in terms of independency, funds, issues identified, actions are taken, etc. and will provide a platform for SAUs to share their experiences of conducting a social audit. Models and best practices in social audits from across States in India and also from other countries will be showcased. Participants will also develop an action plan for strengthening SAUs and roll-out of social audits in other rural development programs especially the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) and Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).

(With Inputs from PIB)