Admn Secys, DDCs asked to make all arrangements
*CS suggests 12 points to RDD for planning activities
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 25: After the success of earlier three phases, the Government of Union Territory is going to organize 4th Phase of Back to Village (B2V) Programme next month and necessary directions have been issued to all the concerned authorities particularly the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj for making all the arrangements as early as possible. Some Union Ministers are likely to participate in the activities to be conducted in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir during the several days long programme.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that on the directions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is organizing Phase-4 of the Back to Village Programme next month and the dates will be announced within next few days as the administration has approached some Union Ministers for participation in the programme.
Apart from the Union Ministers, officers of Central Government are also likely to participate in the activities to be conducted as part of the programme and all the concerned authorities of Union Territory particularly the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj have been directed by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta to make necessary arrangements in this regard in the shortest possible time-frame.
The Chief Secretary has also suggested 12 points for planning activities as part of Phase-4 of the Back to Village Programme. These points include Nasha Mukt Abhiyan, functioning of Patwaris and Village Level Workers (VLWs), availability of officers in Panchayats, functioning of school complex system, Amrit Sarovars, Swachh Gram, convergence meetings (once in a month in villages where all departments are present).
Moreover, during the programme enough focus will be laid on generating awareness about all prominent schemes of various departments, Digital J&K including empowerment, online services, formation of Youth Clubs, generation of employment in villages etc, sources informed, adding taking stock of the grievances of the people and their redressal on priority will also be part of the activities to be conducted during the programme.
The Phase-I of the Back to Village Programme was launched in the month of June 2019 and the Phase-II was conducted in November 2019 and Phase-III was organized in the month of October 2020. 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.
The Administrative Secretaries, who are also the Mentors of different districts of the Union Territory, have also been told to visit their respective districts during the Phase-4 of the programme and all the 20 Deputy Commissioners are under direction to ensure effective coordination at all the levels so as to make the 4th Phase a grand success on the lines of earlier three phases.
“This unique mission has been a catalyst for development and a revolutionary step for people-centric governance and has laid down a strong foundation for the system wherein the top levels of administration and local population work in a spirit of Jan Bhagidari thus empowering the people in true sense”, a senior officer of the Government said, adding even this public outreach programme got a mention by the Prime Minister in the Mann-Ki-Baat as a festival of development, public participation and awareness.
The programme was started with focus on four main goals—energizing Panchayats, collecting feedback on delivery of Government schemes/programmes, capturing specific economic potential and undertaking assessment of needs of the villages besides affording an opportunity to gazetted officers to visit the villages.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
