The inability of rulers in encouraging people’s participation in developmental activities has impeded progress in villages, chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao has observed.
Despite pumping in substantial funds towards development, he said rural areas had not seen qualitative changes in the last seven decades after independence in the country.
“If people are told about their collective strength, our countryside will witness a sea change in the years to come,” Rao said at a gathering of cabinet ministers, district collectors, heads of the department and senior officials here on Tuesday at a conference on the to-be launched Grama Jyothi programme.
The conference was organised as a prelude to the Grama Jyothi programme, which will be launched on August 17 by the chief minister, to draw up the plan for the same.
Explaining about the idea behind Grama Jyothi, the chief minister said people’s participation would be promoted from planning to execution-level of various developmental works in their village.
Villages like Gangadevipalli, Ankapur, Mulknoor in Telangana, which had witnessed development on all fronts, should set as an example for other villages, he said.
“We need not look for examples elsewhere. Our state has enough examples in this regard. These villages have seen remarkable change within years with people’s participation,” he added. The CM said awareness has to be raised among rural folk not to perceive it as a programme of sarpanch alone but as that of everyone in the village.
The objective of this programme is to strengthen the existing Panchayati Raj system, make gram panchayats participate actively in development schemes and prepare plans at the village level.
He instructed everyone including sarpanch, MPP, ZPP to participate in the Grama Sabhas. Similarly, MLAs should adopt one village per mandal and convert it into model village, he added.
The state government has increased the upper limit on the funds to be spent for salaries from the total funds received by panchayats.
Slew of Measures
- 25,000 rickshaws to be procured for garbage collection in villages
- Grama panchayats to organise ‘Power Day’ regularly to take up electricity repair works
- Toilets in all households
- Educated youth to teach children in villages
- SC/ST funds to be used for uplift of SC and ST communities
- Soak tanks to come up outside villages to connect to drains in the village.
- Awareness against consuming arrack
Source: The New Indian Express