Kolhapur: In a first-of-its-kind initiative in Maharashtra, Rendal Gram Panchayat in Kolhapur district came up with fantastic idea to make local governance more transparent and more participatory. They started live-streaming panchayat's monthly meetings through Google Meet, facilitating villagers with all the proceedings directly on their mobile phones.
On Wednesday, 130 local residents witnessed the proceedings from their mobile phones for the first time. The move has been widely appreciated as it has increased transparency and also allowed involvement of public in grassroots governance.
Rendal, which houses around 7000–8000 people and has 17 members in Hatkanangale taluka of Kolhapur, is located adjacent to Hupari town, also known as the silver city. For the last several years, villagers here had been expressing their desire to attend the monthly meetings and witness how their elected representatives address local issues. However, since Panchayat meetings do not have public galleries like the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, direct participation wasn't possible.
To address the issue, Sarpanch Supriya Patil and the Gram Panchayat administration decided to open the doors virtually, and eventually villagers were invited to join the proceedings via Google Meet for the June monthly meeting.
Locals have welcomed this move. "This initiative has finally allowed us to see if our representatives are raising our concerns," said Mehboob Mujawar, one of the villagers who joined the meeting online.
Sarpanch Supriya Patil called it a proud moment, and said, "Using the power of modern technology, Rendal Gram Panchayat has become the first in Maharashtra to broadcast its monthly Gram Sabha meeting live to villagers via Google Meet. It gives us immense satisfaction that Gram Panchayat has implemented such an initiative for the first time in the state to directly involve villagers in decision-making process in local governance matters. Going forward, we will see how we can use artificial intelligence and other advanced technology to make administration more people-centric."
Similarly, Deputy Sarpanch Abhishek Patil stated that the main idea behind this digital shift was to help people understand that the issues discussed in these meetings directly impact their lives. "We have requested the villagers to submit their concerns to the Panchayat 15 days in advance, so that we could discuss each issue during the meetings," he said.
He also assured that more such tech-driven efforts will be initiated in the future to improve transparency and efficiency.
