Against the Planning Commission's and the ministry of panchayati raj's views of abolition of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), the ministry of rural development has initiated process for restructuring of DRDAs. Last month, the rural development ministry had asked the states and Union Territories to send suggestions on the restructuring of apex body supervising anti-poverty programmes at the district levels since 1980. The Planning Commission has been consistently stated that DRDAs should be merged with the District Planning Committees (DPCs) following the passage of panchayati raj act in 1993 as DRDAs have emerged a 'parallel power centre' to panchayats. According to a rural development ministry official, there have been several suggestions regarding restructuring received from the states and union territories. The ministry spends more than Rs 212 crore for meeting their salary and contingency expenses. The cost of running DRDAs are met by Union government and state government in the ratio of 75:25. Not willing to give up its control over DRDAs, the rural development ministry had constituted a task force to suggest necessary changes/ amendments required in the guidelines of DRDAs. The task force has received several suggestions like hiring of young professionals on contract basis in DRDAs, prescription of qualification for the DRDA staff, adequate provision of staff at the Block and Gram Panchayat level, merger of DRDAs with Zilla Parishads; adequate emphasis on the capacity building of DRDA officials. Headed by the collector or the district magistrate, DRDA coordinates with other departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and financial institutions to gather support and resources. Under the Panchayati Raj Act, these functions have been assigned to DPCs. Many states government are in the process of setting up DPCs. The Union ministry of panchayati raj has been demanding winding up of DRDAs for some time now. Union minister for Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar recently said that bodies implementing the anti-poverty measures like District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) and units set up for implementation of United Progressive Alliance's programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission and National Horticulture Mission (NHM) are essentially undermining the role of Panchayats. Aiyar urged for abolition or merger of all the development programme so that they could be brought under the supervision of panchayats for better implementation and impact. "Panchayats should have full control over technical and non-technical manpower working in there schemes as constitutionally sanctioned. Such agencies must be invariably headed by the chairperson of the panchayat at the appropriate level,' Aiyar told in Lok Sabha on the discussion of 5th anniversary charter of panchayati raj Even a planning commission official said that there was a perception in the Government that the DRDAs would function as parallel bodies once all DPCs were in place. "This would not mean disempowering Member of Parliament (MPs), who head the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committees on implementation of poverty alleviation and Centrally-sponsored schemes. Zilla panchayats would continue to monitor the projects,' the planning commission official said.