Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law & Justice Abdul Haq today called for strengthening democracy at the grassroots level saying that Gram Sabhas are like mini Parliaments in rural areas. He said the people of a particular area have to decide which development works are to be taken up in their village and not the contractors or officials.He said the Gram Sabhas should play a vibrant role in effective execution of the developmental programmes by taking advantage of the flagship schemes like MGNREGA. He asked the Gram Rozgar Sevaks (GRS) to identify the deserving unemployed youth in each village so that they can benefit from MGNREGA. He said involving the unemployed youth in fruitful and remunerative activities would not only help in income generation but also keep them away from anti-social activities like the menacing drug abuse.
Abdul Haq said this while reviewing functioning of Rural Development Department in district Pulwama. The meeting was attended by MoS Forest, Animal Husbandry, Cooperatives and Fisheries Zahoor Ahmad Mir, MLA Pulwama Mohammad Khalil Band, MLA Tral Mushtaq Ahmad Shah and Deputy Commissioner Pulwama Neeraj Kumar.The Minister directed the RDD officials to start organizing Gram Sabhas immediately and give adequate publicity to the same. He asked the block level officers to convene the Gram Sabhas in open instead of closed rooms so that more and more people are involved.
He said the development of rural areas guarantees the state's overall progress. He emphasized the need for bridging the gulf between cities and rural areas by ensuring that all modern day facilities reach even the far off places.The Minister laid emphasis on the enrolment unskilled unemployed youth in MGNREGA so that the government can guarantee them 100 days of job besides the youth will contribute in rural development by creating durable and productive assets.Minister said rural development implies both the economic betterment of people as well as greater social transformation. Increased participation of people in the rural development programmes, decentralization of planning and greater access to credit are envisaged for providing the rural people with better socio-economic prospects.
Earlier the meeting was informed that district Pulwama had available budget of Rs 23.82 crore under MGNREGA out of which Rs 23.65 crore was expended. Officials said RDD had set a target to generate 5.5 lakh man-days and the department generated 7.18 lakh man-days achieving surplus target of 129.83%.The meeting was informed that 42519 job cards were issued in previous fiscal and out of these card holders, 23203 card holders were available for work who demanded jobs.Under IAY, meeting was informed that Rs 3.85 crore were available in last fiscal out of which 98.76% of funds were utilized.
Officers informed the Minister that 1769 units were taken up under IAY which included 1360 spillover works. They said 919 units were completed which include 870 units of previous spillover and 49 units of new target.The Minister was further informed that the department received Rs 2.5 crore under flood convergence with other departments and five works have been taken up in different phases.Under Swach Bharat Mission, the department had available funds of Rs 4.73 crore while Rs 4.59 crore were spent in the last fiscal. Officials said under the scheme department had target to complete 14036 Individual Household Latrines including Spill over target while department achieved target of 5965 IHHLs in the last fiscal.