Chaibasa, Feb. 8: Chief Minister Raghubar Das participated in Yojna Banao Abhiyan at Raghoi village of Sonua block in West Singhbhum district on Sunday.
Addressing the villagers, Das said that more than 60 years have passed but no government could successfully implement the dream of Mahatma Gandhi’s panchyayt raj at village level. He said that the government is the people, while the DCs, SDOs and BDOs are merely serving the people and assisting them to translate their plans and programs into reality.
The Chief Minister emphasized on developing villages where every plan and program will be chalked up by the villagers chaired by mukhiya under the Yojna Bano Abhiyan. The government will transfer about Rs. 80 lakh directly into the account of mukhiya to implement the villagers’ plans as Rs. 6,000 crore have been allocated for the panchayat Raj under the 14th Finance Commission.
The government is determined to decentralize the political power at the village level. West Singhbhum district is rich in mineral resources and hence the government has decided to allocate 10 per cent extra of the revenue generated by the district mineral to the particular district.
While suggesting the villagers the CM asked the villagers to focus on three importance steps to be followed first the five elected members should survey house to house to assess the number of poor people who do not have land, should be granted 150 days job by the panchayat elected body. Second important step is to store the natural water by constructing check dam, pond, Bora Pond, small water pool in farm.
In this connection Chief Minister added that in case of a pond owned by individual government will also provide money to revamp the pond. In second important include rearing of goats, cultivation of fish, agriculture such as growing flower vegetables and fruits.
The third important step is to achieve Swachha Bharata on the 150th anniversary of Mahtma Gandhi by 2019. The CM appealed to the people to send their children to school. He asked the people not to involve politics in the development of the village. “We should be careful about ultras who want to disturb the development,” he added.
He said, “We heard that horse trading was rampant in zila parishad adhaksh elections and generally members were bribed to the tune of Rs 8 to 9 lakh to zila parishad adhaksh. Now the government is on the way to introduce that the post of zila parishad chief, who will be directly elected by the people.”
The CM also mentioned that ration cards will be provided to all to certify that an individual is a citizen of India.
A Q&A session was also held with the chief minister on various issues during the program. The villagers also expressed their feeling that after Yojna Banao Abhiyan, the five elected members who will dominate the execution of the various scheme may become corrupt and what should they do in such situations.
Those present at the event included Kolhan Commissioner Arun Kumar, DIG R K Dhan, DC Aboo Backer Sidhique, DDC Anil Kumar, ADC Jay Kishore Prasad, DSE Puspha Kujur and all the government departmental heads in the Yojna Bano Abhiyan.