NLU Tripura is helping close to 500 villages plan their future

The NLU is a 'technical partner' for a project to revamp gram panchayats in Tripura. It will help them with their plans and connect them to legal aid .

- Atul Krishna

Since September 2024, the National Law University (NLU) Tripura has been helping over 480 gram panchayats in the state to plan their future.

NLU Tripura is helping gram panchayat members understand legal aspects of social issues, training them in budgeting and finance and evaluating the feasibility of their Gram Panchayat Development Plans blueprints to guide economic growth.

This is part of a joint initiative of the ministries of rural development and Panchayati Raj to revamp gram panchayats. As part of this GPDP initiative, Tripura government has directed its gram panchayats to submit a development plan with a focus on economic development and social justice, before the next financial year.

But the first plans to come in were problematic, focussing too much on infrastructure and not enough on social issues and sustainable development. To rectify this, the state government brought NLU Tripura into the fold.

NLU Tripura has signed a six-month agreement to act as technical partners and provide "handholding support".

Its legal aid cell will also tie the 480 gram panchayats to the state legal aid clinics.

Development plan

NLU Tripura's main role is to help balance out the lopsided plans that had first come in.

"What had happened previously was that the government prepared the plan without any technical support.

They focused more on roads and other projects but issues like social justice were not given due priority. So, the government identified several challenges like inadequate participation of people in the planning process," said Yogesh Pratap Singh, vice-chancellor, NLU Tripura.