Jammu (NVI): The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has decided to depute more than 5000 gazetted officers to Panchayats to do first-hand appraisals of developmental works as part its ambitious ‘Back to Village (B2V)’ programme, the second phase of which begins from November 25.
Encouraged by huge response to B2V-1, the J&K Government has also decided to hold its people-oriented outreach programme twice a year from now onwards to “strengthen grassroots democracy and participatory development”.
“The B2V-phase II will be more intense than previous phase as current one will be based on four main objectives like follow up of B2V-1, empowerment of Panchayats, 100% coverage of beneficiary oriented schemes and doubling of farmers’ income by 2022,” Principal Secretary Planning, Development & Monitoring and Information Department Rohit Kansal told reporters here today.
The ‘Back to Village’ programme was launched as a unique project by the government in June 2019 for speeding up developmental tempo in rural areas and creating a genuine partnership between the administration and the people.
Kansal said that the first phase of the outreach campaign drew an overwhelming response from the general public during which administration was able to analyze the critical gaps in each Panchayat to ensure that the basic amenities in each of them are available to people.
He said Rs 1000 crore have already been released in favour of Panchayats while as Rs 700 crore more are in the pipeline for fast-tracking the development process. He informed that Rs. 5 crore each were released earlier to Deputy Commissioners for implementing the commitments made under the first phase of the ‘Back to Village’ programme.
Secretary Rural Development, Sheetal Nanda, Secretary GAD, Farooq Ahmad Lone and Director Information and Public Relations, Dr. Syed Sehrish Asgar were also present during the press conference.
