Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) — Meghalaya

What is Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in Meghalaya?

Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) is a centrally sponsored scheme whose purpose is to make local self-government work better. RGSA does not build roads, pay pensions or transfer cash. RGSA builds capability, it trains the people who hold local office, and it funds the planning processes through which a village decides what it wants done.

RGSA in Meghalaya is implemented by the Community and Rural Development Department, Government of Meghalaya, and is funded on a 90:10 basis between the Central Government and the state. According to the department, the scheme's objective in Meghalaya is to build the capabilities of Panchayati Raj Institutions to work towards the Sustainable Development Goals, and its focus areas in the state are:

• Basic orientation training for elected representatives of local institutions.
• Strengthening the partnership between local institutions and Self Help Groups.
• Preparation of Village Development Plans for project implementation.

Why RGSA looks different in Meghalaya

Meghalaya is one of the states where this scheme cannot simply be copied from the plains. Meghalaya's tribal areas are administered under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, which vests substantial local authority in Autonomous District Councils, the Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills Autonomous District Councils, rather than in the statutory three-tier panchayat system created by Part IX of the Constitution. Below the councils sit traditional village institutions: the Dorbar Shnong headed by the Rangbah Shnong in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, and the Nokma and village council structure in the Garo Hills.

The practical consequence is that RGSA's training and planning support in Meghalaya is applied to that indigenous structure. The "elected representatives" who receive basic orientation training are the office holders of these institutions, and the Village Development Plans the scheme supports are prepared by village bodies that predate the scheme by generations. This is a genuine difference from how RGSA is described in a state with statutory gram panchayats, and a reader searching for a Meghalaya gram panchayat election or a panchayat secretary's office will not find one in the same form.

Who is eligible for RGSA support in Meghalaya?

RGSA supports:

• Office holders in local self-government institutions in Meghalaya, who receive basic orientation and capacity-building training.
• Functionaries and staff who support those institutions administratively.
• Village bodies preparing Village Development Plans for project implementation.
• Self Help Groups, indirectly, through the strengthening of the institution-SHG partnership that the department names as a focus area.

Individuals cannot apply, and are not eligible, for a personal benefit under RGSA. This is the single point readers most often get wrong about the scheme. RGSA has:

• No individual cash benefit, there is no grant, pension, subsidy or stipend paid to a private citizen.
• No citizen application form, online or offline.
• No open enrolment for training. Participants are nominated through the departmental structure, against the state's annual action plan.

Any person or website offering to "register you for RGSA benefits" for a fee is running a fraud. There is nothing for a private individual to register for.

How to apply for RGSA support in Meghalaya

Because RGSA has no citizen application, the real route runs through institutions.

1. Identify the local institution — the village body, Autonomous District Council structure or block-level arrangement, through which your habitation participates in local self-government.
2. Approach the Block Development Office of your Community and Rural Development block, which is the working level at which departmental programmes, training nominations and village planning are coordinated.
3. Raise the request through the district administration and the Community and Rural Development Department, which prepares the state's annual action plan for RGSA and decides the training calendar and the coverage of institutions.
4. Prepare and submit the Village Development Plan through the village body, since the department names the preparation of these plans for project implementation as an RGSA focus area. A well-prepared plan is what converts RGSA's planning support into actual works on the ground.
5. Link the plan to the village's Self Help Groups, using the institution-SHG partnership that RGSA is explicitly meant to strengthen, so that livelihood activity and village planning are decided together rather than in separate rooms.

How RGSA connects to the other rural schemes in Meghalaya

RGSA is best understood as the connective tissue between the department's larger programmes rather than as a scheme in its own right. The Community and Rural Development Department runs MGNREGA through the State Rural Employment Society, PMAY-Gramin housing, the National Rural Livelihood Mission through the Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society, and DDU-GKY through the State Institute of Rural Development, all on the same 90:10 funding pattern.

Every one of those programmes depends on decisions taken at village level: which MGNREGA works go into the shelf of works, which households are on the PMAY-G Permanent Waitlist, which women form an SHG, which youth are mobilised for skill training. RGSA funds the training and planning capacity that makes those decisions competent. A village institution whose office holders have had basic orientation training and have prepared a Village Development Plan will use MGNREGA and PMAY-G better than one that has not.

That is also the honest answer to a citizen asking what RGSA does for them. RGSA's effect on a household is indirect, it reaches you through better village planning and better-run schemes, not through a payment into your account.

Where to get help with RGSA in Meghalaya

• Block Development Office of your Community and Rural Development block. The practical first point of contact for training nominations and village planning support.
• District administration and the district rural development machinery, for matters above block level.
• Community and Rural Development Department, Meghalaya: The Director, Addl. Secretariat Building, Room 316, Shillong 793001, East Khasi Hills District; email cnrd-meg[at]nic[dot]in
• Scheme information and guidelines are published by the department at megcnrd.gov.in, which carries both the schemes page and the scheme guidelines page for its centrally sponsored programmes.

RGSA training and support are provided free of cost to the institutions and office holders covered. No fee is payable by any participant, and no fee may be demanded by any person claiming to arrange RGSA benefits.