Ambitious ‘back to village’ programme starts in J&K

Srinagar, June 20 (IANS) The ambitious 'back to village' mission mode programme started on Thursday in many districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

The 'back to village' programme will continue till June 27 across the state and during this period the entire administrative apparatus of the state government is going to move out of state, provincial and district level offices to reach out to the villages.

Sheetal Nanda, Administrative Secretary of the rural development department, said during this period one gazette office will go to each of the around 4,500 panchayats in the state.

"The officer will spend two days and one night at the panchayat and will hold meetings with elected 'panchs' and 'sarpanchs', hold 'graam' and 'mahila sabhas' in addition to other grassroots level interactions.

"The basic objective of this programme is to move governance from its seat of operation to the doorsteps of the people in villages," Nanda said.

During this programme, the officers will collect data on the guidelines contained in the 20-page booklet that has already been given to them, she said.

"Five main problems will be highlighted from each Panchayat. After collection of all the data, we will put it out on our website and respective administrative departments will be asked to attend to these problems on top priority basis," she said during a current affairs programme on the Doordarshan Kendra.

The officer who visits the Panchayat will be designated as the Nodal Officer for that village.

"After some time, the Nodal Officers will revisit the villages and take stock of the redressal of the problems highlighted during their 'back to village' deployment," she said.

Rural areas in Jammu and Kashmir face multiple problems including those of roads, schools, health centres, electricity, sanitation and safe drinking water.