With Back to Village (B2V) Programme changing the trend of people visiting the corridors of power and instead getting used to officials visiting them, people are feeling empowered and witnessing development works getting identified and finished in a record time.The overwhelming response continues from public as the graph of development in villages has gained momentum. Locals say that they have understood the meaning of democracy in real sense during the B2V Program. “Now we need not roam around the offices in district headquarters or other offices but the officers come at our doorsteps to listen to our grievances on ground and see the problems themselves. This is the real change in governance,” said a Sarpanch in Garoora. The Panchayats have received special attention which according to the villagers was never seen before. During the first phase of B2V programme the villagers pitched for 1162 works out of which one work was taken up from each Panchayat of the district. There are 151 Panchayats in Bandipora district.Assistant Commissioner Development Jahangir Ahmad Khandey said the department of Rural Development executed these works in convergence mode spending an amount of Rs 14.73 Crore including state share of Rs 5 Crore, Rs 6.45 Cr under 14th FC and Rs 3.28 Cr under MGNREGA. The works are mostly meant for providing regular Water Supply, improving Electricity, irrigation, flood control and School education infrastructure.
Laying special stress on the agriculture sector, the department of agriculture also took advantage of the B2V program thereby providing technical support to the farmers and provided modern agricultural tools to the farms including 54 threshers and 60 other agriculture tools. The department also assisted farmers in establishing 51 Mushroom units that have acted as a major income generating units for farmers keeping in view the market demand of Mushroom. Likewise the department of Horticulture distributed 300 tool kits among the orchardists.To provide space for youth to utilise their energy in a positive manner and spend their leisure time in productive activities, the government took an initiative to improve the sports infrastructure in rural areas. The Department of Rural Development has taken up the task to provide play fields in every Panchayat and till now most of the play fields have been completed while few will be completed in coming days while the department of Youth Services and Sports also distributed sports kits in every Panchayat for community use including five football posts, volleyball equipments, handballs, badminton, martial art equipments and two chess boards in 131 Panchayats.Laying special focus on the environment, Bio-diversity Management Committees were formed and Sarpanch and Panchs were assigned several duties with regard to the implementation of several activities under Bio-diversity project. During the two day activities in every Panchayat, the visiting officers planted saplings of different trees including conifers and deodar and the people pledged to plant more trees in the coming spring to save the earth from global warming and also joined hands to find solutions to the solid waste in the villages to preserve water bodies.
During the week long activities in rural areas, the visiting officers and officers of several other departments reviewed the implementation of several other individual oriented welfare schemes in the villages including Ayushman Bharat, PMAY, PM-Kisan etc so that government gets a feedback from ground level about the success of these schemes. Officers from the line departments took advantage of the programme by informing the people about welfare schemes and job oriented schemes for unemployed youth and are motivating the people for taking benefit of such schemes.Meanwhile on the fifth day of B2V2, Deputy Commissioner Bandipora visited more than a dozen Panchayats and met the visiting officers, Panchayat representatives and locals. He also inspected developmental works in villages, distributed farming tools and reviewed the implementation of various schemes.In Arin block of Bandipora district, the Deputy Commissioner visited TA Shah Panchayat and inspected the ongoing Back to Village Programme. He participated in the process and interacted with the officials, Panchs and Sarpanchs. The Deputy Commissioner donated paddy thresher to the Panchayat besides distributing farming tools to the farmers of the village. He also visited several Panchayats of Aloosa block and launched the plantation drive in several schools and Panchayats of the villages by planting deodar saplings.In other parts of the district, the visiting officers in 50 Panchayats held interaction with PRI representatives and reviewed the progress of the works taken up after first phase of B2V.The officers also reviewed the implementation of several welfare schemes including marriage assistance scheme, Old Age Pension, Education Assistance to labours and other schemes and cross checked the data available with the locals to verify whether the schemes are being implemented on ground.