Admn Secys asked to undertake distt outreach from next week
CS directs Prabhari Officers to make digital services popular
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 16: The 5th Phase of Back to Village (B2V) Programme will be conducted in the last week of the current month and all the departments have been directed by the Government to plan the activities promptly. Moreover, all the Administrative Secretaries have been told to undertake district outreach programme for taking stock of progress of developmental works.
EXCELSIOR in its edition dated August 22, 2023 had exclusively reported that Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta has issued directions to the Rural Development Department to make preparations for the conduct of 5th Phase of Back to Village Programme.
Now, office of the Chief Secretary has conveyed to all the departments that Back to Village Programme will be organized in the last week of October and they have been directed to undertake all the preparatory steps and plan the activities for the successful conduct of the programme, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
The Back to Village Programme is aimed to involve the people and Government officials in a joint effort to deliver the mission of equitable development in the rural areas of the Union Territory. During the programme, the Government servants visit each Panchayat of the Union Territory, stay there for a specific period to interact and obtain feedback from the grass-roots so as to tailor Government efforts in improving delivery of village specific services.
The Phase-I of the Back to Village Programme was launched in the month of June 2019, the Phase-II was conducted in November 2019, Phase-III in the month of October 2020 and Phase-IV in November 2022.
The Phase-I was an introductory and interactive programme to understand the people’s grievances and demands. The Phase-II focused on the devolution of powers to Panchayats and tried to understand how these Panchayats are functioning and what are the grievances and demands while as Phase-III was designed on the format for grievance redressal. During the Phase-IV the visiting officers were apprised about the commitments made during the previous Back to Village Programmes and works completed during the previous years.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary has impressed upon all the Administrative Secretaries to undertake district outreach programme from next week, sources informed, adding the Administrative Secretaries have been asked to undertake visits to districts once every week on the pre-designated days for public hearing as well as taking stock of progress of developmental works.
A detailed order/schedule in this regard will be issued by the General Administration Department within next few days.
“The Administrative Secretaries will furnish reports on weekly basis highlighting the steps taken for redressal of grievances brought to their notice by the public during the outreach programme for the appraisal of the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat”, sources said.
Apart from this, the Administrative Secretaries are already under instructions to remain available for attending public grievances on daily basis (except on days of tour) between 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm in person or on notified telephone numbers or on video-conferencing facility for redressal of public grievances.
According to the sources, the Chief Secretary has further impressed upon all the Administrative Secretaries and Prabhari Officers to give wider publicity to the digital services which have been launched in the Union Territory like Digi-Dost, e-Sanjeevani, 102/108 Ambulance helpline etc.
“In this regard, Rural Development Department, Information, Cooperatives, School Education, J&K Bank, Self Help Groups etc, which have wide reach, have been asked to take the lead in making the digital services popular”, read the instructions of the Chief Secretary, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
Keeping in view the forthcoming conference of the Chief Secretaries, the Government of J&K Union Territory has asked all the Administrative Secretaries to complete the pending Action Taken Reports (ATRs) on priority.
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