(1) Any person may apply for the copies of the following records of a Panchayat in the manner prescribed in sub-rule (2) to
(4):-
(i) All leases, agreement, resolution of the Panchayat;
(ii) all final orders passed by the Panchayat or its officer or any matter which affect the applicant as so much if any recommendation made by some other person as is necessary to explain the meaning of final order.
(iii) entries of pariwar register;
(iv) copies of no other record of the Panchayat which do not concern individual, or is not in public interest shall be given.
(2) Every application for obtaining a copy of the records of the Panchayat shall be made to the Pradhan of Gram Panchayat or Chairman of Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad, as the case may be, stating therein the purpose for which copy is required and shall be accompanied with a fee of rupees Two.
(3) Copying fee shall be charged at the rate of rupee three for every page or fraction thereof which shall be recovered in advance before making the copy applied for:
Provided that no fee shall be charged for the copy of the record from MP and MLA or the officer of the State Government, in case these are required for official use.
(4) The Secretary of the Panchayat shall then get the copy prepared, certify it as a true copy under his signature and seal and deliver it to the applicant or his duly authorised agent, in case the copy of the record is prepared by the Secretary himself he shall be entitled to get the 50% of the copying fees and remaining 50% shall be deposited in the Sabha fund. If the photo-stat copies of the record are provided the copying fee after deducting the photo-stat charges shall be deposited in the Panchayat fund.
(5) Any person may apply for inspection of the records(including bills, muster rolls, vouchers, estimates and measurement book)of the Panchayat or any Committee thereof to the Pradhan of Gram Panchayat or Chairman of Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad, as the case may be. The inspection fee shall be rupees two for the first hour and rupee one for any subsequent hour or fraction thereof for every record inspected. The inspection shall be made during the office hour in the office of Panchayat.
The use of pen and ink during the inspection is prohibited. Inspection of any record shall be made in the presence of officer/official of the Panchayat.
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(6) The fee chargeable under this rule shall be paid in cash with the application to the Secretary or ex-officio Secretary of the Panchayat, as the case may be, who shall further get it deposited in Panchayat Fund and forthwith give a receipt under his signature in Form -30.
(7) The Director may from time to time revise the rates of copying and inspection fee by notification.
1[149-A. Weeding of Record.- (1) The Panchayat Secretary or Panchayat Sahayak, in the case of Gram Panchayat, and the Secretary, in the case of Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad , as the case may be, shall see that the work of checking and weeding of files and other record is done regularly .
The broad principle to be followed in weeding and destruction of record is that no papers which are important or are likely to become important in future, however indirectly, as sources of information on any aspect of history, whether cultural, social, economic etc., or which may in future prove to be biographical or antiquarian interest, shall be destroyed. No record of the Panchayat , which is related to or involved in any legal proceedings, shall be destroyed until the case has attained finality .
(2) The retention period for retention of each type of record of Panchayat shall be such as is specified by the Director from time to time. The period specified for weeding out the record shall invariably be taken to run from the date of final order on the file.
(3) The Panchayat Secretary or Panchayat Sahayak, in the case of Gram Panchayati, and the Secretary, in the case of Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad, as the case may be, subject to the provisions of sub rule (1), shall sort out the records, files, registers etc., after tallying the same with the retention period specified by the Director and prepare the list of the record proposed to be weeded out in the Elimination or weeding out Register in Form-35. The entries in columns 1 to 12 of the register shall be made as soon as the record concerned is sorted out. For the sake of convenience the records proposed to be weeded out shall be kept in the order in which they have been entered in the Elimination or Weeding out Register.
(4) The list of the record, on Elimination or weeding out Register, proposed to be weeded out shall be placed before the Record Weeding Committee which shall have the following composition, namely:-
(i) in the case of the Gram Panchayat, it shall comprise of,-
(a) Panchayat Inspector or Panchayat Sub-Inspector;
(b) Pradhan of Gram Panchayat;
(c) Panchayat Secretary or Panchayat Sahayak;
(ii) in the case of Panchayat Samiti, it shall comprise of,-
1. Rule 149-A ins. vide Not. No. PCH-HA(1) 1/2008, dated 5.2..2009, published in R.H.P. Extra., dated 6.2.2009, p.7541-7545.
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(a) Chairman, Panchayat Samiti;
(b) Block Development Officer;
(c) Panchayat Inspector or Sub-Inspector; and
(iii) in the case of Zila Parishad, it shall comprise of,-
(a) Chairman, Zila Parishad
(b) Executive Officer , Zila Parishad;
(c) District Panchayat Officer.
(5) The Record Weeding Committee shall verify the list of record, prepared under sub-rule (3) with the record proposed to be weeded out for ensuring that the list meets out the conditions of sub-rule (1) and the specified retention period. The Committee shall also look through the record to satisfy itself that the record has lost its utility and entries in columns 13 and 16 shall be made for finalizing the list of record to be destroyed or weeded out. Entries in the “Remarks” columns can be made whenever necessary. i.e, when the classification of a record is changed resulting in the transfer of it to another period for elimination or destruction etc. The Committee after approving the list of record to be destroyed or eliminated shall appoint any official of the Panchayat or of the department of Panchayati Raj to be a weeder of record.
(6) Immediately after destruction of the weeded record of the Panchayat, the members of the Committee constituted under sub-rule (4) shall put their signatures as a mark of authentication at the end of the list of the weeded out record in Form-35.]