GAP BETWEEN AVAILABILITY AND REQUIREMENT OF TRAINING INFRASTRUCTURE UNDER PANCHAYATI-RAJ

Training to officials as well as elected representatives is an essenti al prerequisite for efficient functioning of Panchayati Raj Institutio ns (PRIs) as a third stratum of government. This paper seeks to examin e the gap between availability and requirement of training infrastruct ure and its related issues under panchayati raj. The total number of p ersonnel to be trained are 24,40,142. Of them more than 23,00,000 will be PRI elected representatives and the rest will be trainers, officer s of core planning team, sectoral officers, block level officials, MP and MLAs. The total cost (both strengthening of training facilities an d running costs) to train these personnel is worked out to as Rs.89,96 ,000. This is about 1.80 per cent of the total budget of the departmen t of rural development during 1993-94. The gap between availability an d requirement of infrastructure is identified on the basis of the tota l number of courses that could be organised annually and the total num ber of courses that are required to be organised at the state and the lower level institutions. Based on the findings, it is suggested that adequate allocation for training infrastructure should be earmarked by both the centre and the state governments, trainers training institut ions should be enlisted on a warfooting keeping the need of PRIs and d ecentralised planning fully in view. In addition to that, immediate ta sk should be to harness the cooperation of universities/research insti tutions and NGOs for imparting training to both the officials and the elected representatives.