Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today announced an amount of Rs 50 lakh to each Zila Parishad and said that the services of retired employees of five major state departments would be taken to execute the process properly.

"We want to ensure smooth transfer of powers of the five major departments which include Primary Education, Agriculture, Medical and Health, Women and Child Development, and Social Justice and Empowerment to PRIs. So we have decided to grant a sum of Rs 50 lakh to every Zila Parishad in the state without any delay," Gehlot told a press conference here.

"Services of the experienced personnel of these departments would be very helpful in this arrangement (transfer) hence the employees of the five departments who are retiring this year will be given an option to work under the PRIs for two years after their retirement on pay minus pension basis," Gehlot said.

He said, "Retired personnel of the same departments who reside in rural areas will also be offered job in the PRIs and such people would be selected through a screening process."

"Recruitment of retired people is a temporary arrangement as routine recruitment is a relatively long process and we do not want any sort of dely in transferring the powers," he said.

Gehlot said that the process was in beginning stage and district level committees would be constituted under the chairmanship of District Collector soon, which would monitor the process and redress grievances, if any.

The state government had on October 2 announced to transfer the powers of the five departments to PRIs.