Director General, J&K Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPARD), Saurabh Bhagat, today inaugurated one week online workshop cum Training of Trainers (ToT) programme on ‘Good Governance through community participation in rural development; Tools and Techniques’.The programme is being organized by National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), Hyderabad, in collaboration with J&K IMPARD. It is meant for the Rural Development professionals of Jammu and Kashmir with an aim to acquaint them with various community led accountability tools and techniques for better service delivery.Director General IMPARD expressed gratitude to Dr. G. Nagendra Kumar, Director General, NIRD&PR and his team for sponsoring and organizing this important programme for officers of J & K government.Saurabh Bhagat, emphasized that success of democracy depends on participation of people whether it may be in the economic, social, political or cultural fields that affects their lives. He informed the participants about the importance of participatory tools and methods for ensuring good governance in rural areas. He exhorted upon the participants to learn keenly the tools and techniques of community participation.
He said that good governance is based on certain principles like transparency, accountability, responsiveness, equitability, inclusiveness, Rule of Law, Consensus Oriented Decision Making and community participation. He added that Village Community (Gram Sabhas) shall be involved from planning to implementation stage as far as three-tier PRI system in J&K is concerned which is a step towards democratic decentralisation of powers.He further said that Back to Village (B2V) Programme of J&K government is a step towards involving people in decision making process. He added that the aim of B2V was to strengthen and facilitate Panchayats across J&K besides getting feedback from the public. He also highlighted the contours of B2V saying that its Phase I was exploratory, Phase II was related to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Phase III was action driven. He said that J&K is the only UT where Personal Health Insurance of the whole population has been achieved through Ayushman Bharat Scheme.DG said that Citizen Charters have been made mandatory for all public institutions. “Mann Ki Baat, interactions with people and Lok Adalats as alternate dispute settlement mechanism to settle the cases pending in the courts are some of the initiatives taken up by the government. In this direction, e-services are being provided especially Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) to benefit the marginalized populace.The programme is being attended by BDOs, AEs of REW and Panchayat Inspectors of Rural Development Department.On the occasion, Course Coordinator, Dr. K. Prabakar of NIRD&PR and faculty of State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), J&K IMPARD were present.Director Trainings, Jammu, Dr. Reva Sharma presented vote of thanks.