Leh (Ladakh) [India]: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will inaugurate the Parliamentary Outreach Programme for the Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions of the Union Territory of Ladakh on August 27, read a press release from the office of the speaker Lok Sabha on Wednesday. According to the press statement, Besides Birla, Union Minister of Heavy Industries, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey; Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya; Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Ladakh, Shri Radha Krishna Mathur; MoS Ministry of Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai and MoS Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) Dr. Munjapara Mahendrabhai; Chairperson of Parliamentary Committees, Members of Parliament, Chairmen of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh and Kargil and other eminent dignitaries will grace the occasion. “The parliamentary outreach Programme for the Empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions is a unique initiative of the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla. A first of its kind program, it is intended to strengthen the institutions of governance and planning at the grass-root level”, said in a statement. The statement further added, that “The first such Outreach Programme was organized at Dehradun, in the State of Uttarakhand, on 8 January 2021. The Programme was physically attended by 445 Panchayat representatives, and in addition, approximately 40,000 Panchayat representatives and officials were connected to the programme online via weblink”, The second Outreach Programme was organized at Shillong on 26 February 2021 for the State of Meghalaya and the other North Eastern States; around 115 members of the local bodies of North Eastern States physically attended the programmes. The third such programme is scheduled to be organized for the grass-root level institutions of the Union Territory of Ladakh on 27 August 2021. The theme of the programme is “Parliamentary Outreach Programme for the Empowerment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions”. Around 195 representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions are likely to physically attend the programme, it informed. Birla listed out the broad objectives of the Programme Create mass awareness/mass participation Create self-confidence/self-respect for the ground level leaders Creation of a sense of ownership of the assets that have been created Fuelling the ambitions for grass root political leaders for democratic values Creating awareness about the various schemes and the doorstep delivery – opportunities for development work Opportunity to develop a network and push the aspirational level of the ground-level leadership. The official statement said Birla will also visit Pangong Lake and Nubra Valley to meet the Panchayat representatives. Delegates have already started arriving in Ladakh for the programme.
