Guwahati, Sep 12 (IANS) India's Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar Tuesday criticised the Congress government in Assam for failing to devolve powers to the people, thereby negating efforts at empowering grassroots units for self-governance.

"The panchayat (village council) members are very good in Assam, but the Panchayati Raj Institution in the state is not that effective with the state government yet to devolve powers to the people," the minister told journalists here.

Aiyar, who was on a visit to Assam and Meghalaya to review the functioning of the panchayats, said the two states need to work vigorously to make the grassroots units of self-government more effective.

"Assam need to adopt a big bang approach to make the panchayats more functional by way of activity mapping, allocating budget from the state plan to the panchayats and evolving district-wise planning for better results," the minister said.

He said states like Kerala were allocating 40 percent of their plan outlay for the panchayats.

"Some more dynamism could bring Assam to the front of the league table," Aiyar said.

Assam had held the first panchayat elections after the Congress government came to power in 2001 - the next polls are due in March 2007.

"We shall definitely go in a big way by reaching to the grassroots level to achieve real democracy," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.

Aiyar, however, was all praise for the growing involvement of women in the development process implemented by the panchayats in Assam.

"Women in Assam are indeed playing a very active and positive role and there is absolutely no discrimination and this is a very healthy trend," the minister said.

He urged the Assam government to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Institutions in Assam for speeding up development through participation of the locals.

"Now that Assam's law and order situation has improved the government needs to focus on grassroots development more aggressively," Aiyar said.