J-K government to organise 'Back to Village' programme to reach out to people at grassroots level

In a first-of-its-kind, the Jammu and Kashmir government has embarked on an ambitious initiative to reach out to the people at the grassroots level through a programme named as 'Back to the Village', an official spokesman said here on Saturday.

He said the programme is being organized from June 20-27 across all panchayats of the state.

To describe the contours of the programme, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam on Friday held a marathon meeting here at the Civil Secretariat with the Administrative Secretaries, the spokesman said.

He said the Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh besides Deputy Commissioners and Heads of various departments participated in the meeting through video conferencing.

Specifying the objective of the programme, the chief secretary said 'Back to the Village' programme will focus on four main goals viz energizing panchayats, collecting feedback on delivery of government schemes/programmes, capturing specific economic potential and undertaking assessment of needs of the villages besides affording an opportunity to gazetted officers to visit the villages, the spokesman said.

He said the programmme will involve the people of the state and government officials in a joint effort to deliver the mission of equitable development across all our rural areas.

The programme is primarily aimed at energizing the 4,483 panchayats and directing development efforts in rural areas through community participation and to create in the rural masses an earnest desire for decent standard of living, he said.

The chief secretary said that as part of the programme, each gazetted officer will be assigned a gram panchayat, where he/she will stay for at least two days including a night halt in the village to interact and obtain feedback from the panchayat representatives, elders and other local people about their concerns, developmental needs and economic potential of the area, the spokesman said.

He added the feedback so obtained will help the government in needs assessment and subsequently to tailor the various central and state government  schemes/programmes in improving delivery of village-specific services and making the village life better in terms improved amenities and economic upliftment.