Gangtok, 15 June 2012:
The members of State Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee lead by the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha PD Rai inspected the various ongoing Rural Development Programmes on 11 and 12 June 2012.
This high powered committee has been constituted to oversee the progress of the various rural development programmes of the State funded by the Ministry of Rural Development. They inspected the field works related to MGNREGA, IAY, PMGSY, NRDWP, NSAP, IWMP and Land Records Digitization in East and South Districts. The team covered Pakyong, Gangtok and Martam Blocks in East District and Namthang Block in South District. The other members of this committee who accompanied the team during the field visit included KN Upreti, Kunga Nima Lepcha, Anil Lachenpa, Acharya Lama who are the non official members along with Anil Ganeriwala – Secretary RM&DD, KN Bhutia Commissioner –cum- Secretary Finance Department, SB Subba, Director FR&ED, DC Nepal Project Director (IWMP), PP Gurung Joint Secretary (Social Justice and Welfare Dept), Ranjan Pariyar, Additional Chief Engineer, Roads & Bridges along with other senior officers of RM&DD who were assisted by district and block level officers of these two districts.
The team was visibly impressed with the quality of MGNREGA assets that they inspected including the jhora training works, school playgrounds, village footpaths, water storage tanks and with the decentralized and people driven approach coupled with stringent transparency norms. The team also inspected IAY and CMRHM houses (which is now dovetailed with IAY scheme since 2010) and appreciated the visible impact of the CMRHM programme in transforming rural lives. The team inspected the service delivery of Old Age Pension programme and appreciated the reduction in the 6 months time frame to 3 months and the universal use of bank and post offices accounts for disbursement of the same. The committee also inspected the watershed related entry point and afforestation activities implemented by the Forest Department. The committee also oversaw the computerization of land records in Pakyong SDM office and the process for issue and mutation of land parchas. The Water Quality Testing Lab of RM&DD established in Tadong and land records digitization lab of LR&DMD was also inspected. The team also interacted with Gram Panchayats and the local community in several places to ascertain the outcomes and impacts of the various rural development programmes. They were especially appreciative of the outcomes of the Dhara Vikas programme which was showing encouraging results within two years of its implementation, and in successfully piloting ground water recharge techniques in the drought prone pockets of Namthang. The revival of Nagi Lake in Namthang by harvesting of seasonal streams was also inspected and found encouraging.
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