Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh Academy of Rural Development Hyderabad K.Chandramauli advices the Extension Officers of various Government Departments to adopt holistic approach toward the implementation of various rural development programmes for improving the economic condition of BPL families. Chandramauli was addressing the 200 officers of Himachal Pradesh Government at the State level Orientation Workshop on ‘Lab to Land Initiative’ here today. The workshop was organised by H.P. Institute of Rural Development, Fairlawns. Speaking on the occasion, Chandramauli underscored the need for integrated development of each Gram Panchayat and it could be achieved only through convergence of all rural development agencies apart from various departments of State and Government of India by working in unison.
He said that the recently introduced scheme of ‘Bharat Nirman Volunteers’ had cached the fancy of everyone, since lot of volunteers are joining hands to bring social transformation in rural areas. This scheme envisaged to rope in all the departments working for upliftment of people in rural areas so that all the schemes and programmes could be implemented in true letter and spirit. The Bharat Nirman Volunteers were committed to change the face of the society by improving the service delivery to each household. Giving presentation on ‘Cheeded Gram Panchayat’ of Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Chandramauli said that this Gram Panchayat had scripted the success story within four months i.e. from November, 2010 to March, 2011 by bringing sea change in the mindset and attitude of its inhabitants. This Gram Panchayat had emerged as role model for thousands of other Gram Panchayats of Andhra Pradesh and for the GPs of other States as well. The population of 935 persons of this Gram Panchayat had been drawing benefits of various schemes in such a manner that now they were in a position to reap their fruits.
Niten Chandra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, said that the schemes of rural development should be devised in such a manner that these meet out the needs and requirements of local people. He said that Government of India and State Government were spending Rs. 8 lakh crore on about 16 crore families every year, on numerous rural development schemes. However, despite of this, the performance of various rural development agencies had been quite dismal and the impact was lacking, he lamented. He said that there had been numerous complaints about the misuse of funds allocated for rural development since the benefits of welfare schemes was not reaching to the grass root level and those BPL families, which were in dire need of such welfare schemes were not able to derive expected benefits. He emphasized on the Social Audit of all schemes including MNERGA. He said that more than two crore people were directly and indirectly associated with the implementation of rural development schemes but service delivery system needs improvement. It was the responsibility of elected representatives of PRIs and each member of Gram Sabha to ensure that the funds allocated for each scheme were utilised properly and fruits of such schemes percolated to the beneficiaries, added he.
Welcoming the dignitaries and participants, Dr. R.N. Batta, Director, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj said that convergence and coordination among different line departments could yield better results for the implementation of rural development schemes. He asked the officers and officials of all the departments to strengthen the ‘Lab to Land Initiative’ by disseminating information and procedures to be adopted to implement various development schemes to the people.
