Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi with some elected representatives of district panchayats at the National Convention of Chairpersons of District and Intermediate Panchayats in New Delhi on Thursday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday called for devolution of more powers and responsibilities to elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions. He also sought a debate on why some States failed to successfully implement the three-tier panchayati raj system. He was speaking at a National Convention of District and Intermediate Panchayat chairpersons organised here to mark the 15th anniversary of panchayati raj. It would be the endeavour of his government to strengthen the role of these institutions in the Centre's programmes, he said while appealing to the State governments to impart additional responsibilities as well as training to the elected representatives in implementation of welfare schemes. Implementation must be done at the local level for effective management. "Most of our development works can be carried out in a better way at the local level.' Dr. Singh said more attention needed to be given to the mid-day meal scheme being implemented through panchayats. He recommended inclusion of local panchayats in the Integrated Child Development Services. Pointing out that the Constitution clearly mentioned that the State governments and legislatures were fully responsible for setting up panchayats, he said the States had their own compulsions. Hence, during the past 15 years, different States had adopted different ways to strengthen panchayati raj institutions. There were some States which did this to a large extent while others had to do much more. The Prime Minister called upon the people to make use of the Right to Information Act to curb corruption in gram sabhas. Assuring the participants that the government would consider their recommendations on improvement of the panchayati raj system, he said the matter would be discussed at the Panchayat Ministers' Conference and the National Development Council. Women's empowerment United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi said the panchayati raj institutions had an important role to play in achieving the target of inclusive growth as envisaged in the 11th Plan. She said the biggest achievement of the panchayati raj system was women's empowerment. "Today, we have more number of women elected through this system than the total number of elected women in the world.' "Consolidate schemes' A charter adopted by the participants during the three-day deliberations recommends that all schemes be consolidated into a single Panchayat Sector Window for budgets to ensure flow of funds to each tier. Other recommendations relate to functional and financial empowerment of panchayats, improving their capacities through devolution of functionaries, training and provision of technical support.