Rural business hubs can bridge urban-rural divide: PM
Nov 23, 2006 - 3:38:34 AM
, Reviewed by: Priya Saxena
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India has around 3.2 million elected panchayat representatives at the local and zila and district levels. Of these 2.2 million are elected members of panchayats, with 1.2 million women members.
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By Indo Asian News Service,
[RxPG] New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday urged the industry to help set up rural business hubs as they could bridge the urban-rural divide and ensure inclusive growth.
Rural business hubs 'could be our answer to the successful Village Enterprises model in China that constitute the backbone of the Chinese rural economic miracle,' Manmohan Singh said while releasing a mid-term review and appraisal report of the panchayati raj ministry, which was set up 30 months back.
So far, 50 memorandums of understanding (MoU) have been signed between business houses and panchayats to set up rural business hubs. But these projects are still to get off the ground.
The prime minister urged the National Rural Business Hubs Council to mobilise the business community to make their contribution to ensure that village enterprises go beyond village haat (market) 'and reach out to the hypermarket' for rural prosperity.
The development and empowerment of panchayati raj, stated the prime minister, could be the 'harbinger of new hope for eradication of rural poverty and the promotion of rural prosperity'.
Drawing attention to the Gram Swaraj Yojana or local self-government proposal prepared by the ministry, the prime minister urged the states to give high priority to ensure its implementation.
'One of the objectives of democratic decentralisation is to encourage people's participation in processes of governance. We hope this will help reduce corruption and abuse of power by various government functionaries,' he said.
To help reduce corruption in panchayat, seen as the third tier of governance after the central and state governments, the prime minister favoured the use of tools of social and formal audits.
India has around 3.2 million elected panchayat representatives at the local and zila and district levels. Of these 2.2 million are elected members of panchayats, with 1.2 million women members.
For a wider representation of people in governance, the prime minister urged states to ensure fair elections to the panchayats.
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