Guwahati, Sept. 12: Ticking off Dispur for its failure to devolve power and responsibilities to panchayats, Union minister for panchayati raj Mani Shankar Aiyar today urged the Assam government to follow the Kerala model to stren-gthen the system of governance at the grassroots level.

Concluding his four-day visit to Assam, the minister observed that while the panchayats were doing a good job in implementing centrally sp-onsored schemes in the state, they had failed to extend their activities beyond this ambit.

He also prepared an action plan for the government during his meeting with chief minister Tarun Gogoi this morning. The plan emphasises the need to devolve more powers and provide more funds to the panchayats. For this purpose, Aiyar suggested that the government open up a “panchayat sector window” in the state budget for the next fiscal year. Through this, more funds would be channelled to the panchayats.

“The funds provided by the state are only enough to meet the establishment costs. So we suggested that the state should create a panchayat sector window in its budget so as to provide more funds to panchayats at each level,” Aiyar told mediapersons after the meeting with the chief minister.

The “statement of conclusion”, signed by Gogoi and Aiyar after their meeting, also observed that the activity map of the panchayats, prepared by the state government in 2002, needs to be updated.

For this purpose, the state government has already instituted a mechanism for reviewing devolution of functions, funds and functionaries to panchayats on a continuing basis. The state would also release the revised activity map in December in the presence of the Union minister.

To devolve more powers to the panchayats, the joint statement said, steps would be taken to merge all parallel bodies, including District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs), with zilla parishads by January 1, 2007.

The state government would also take steps for building capacity of elected panchayat representatives.

For this purpose, it was asked to prepare an advance plan for training of trainers, finalisation of course materials and preparation of training calendars. This action plan will be submitted to the Centre by December 1.

Dispur also agreed to set up four regional training institutions and a satellite applications centre for satellite-based training with central assistance. The state government will also try to conduct the forthcoming panchayat elections with electronic voting machines and on common electoral rolls.