Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam Thursday chaired a video conference with Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to review the preparations for second phase of the Back to Village (B2V) Programme across 4300 Panchayat Halqas of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir being organized from 25th of November to 30th November, 2019.
Principal Secretary, Planning Development & Monitoring Department (PD&MD), Divisional Commissioner, Jammu and Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department (RD&PR) attended the meeting.
Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir participated via video conferencing.
Apart from officers at the District level, the General Administration Department (GAD) has issued deployment orders of 657 UT and Directorate Level officers to the 20 Districts of the UT of J&K for the second phase of B2V Programme. This includes Administrative Secretaries, IFS Officers, JKAS and other officers. As part of the programme, each officer will be assigned a Gram Panchayat by the DCs, where he/she will stay for at least two days including a night stay in the village. DCs will also be staying for a night stay in a Panchayat Halqa along with the visiting Officers
Lieutenant Governor, Advisors, Chief Secretary and other senior officers will be visiting various Halqa Panchayats in both Kashmir and Jammu Divisions between 25th of November and 30th November, 2019.
Specifying the objective of the programme, Chief Secretary said that on the directions of the Lieutenant Governor to carry forward the initiative of equitable development of Panchayats and further citizens’ interface with the government, the second phase of B2V Programme has been planned. It will focus on assessment of the institutionalization of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) at the grassroots level. It will assess the progress of resolution of priority issues of a Panchayat for which Rs 5 Crore have been released to each District. It will also focus on the impact of various flagship programmes and welfare schemes which will help the government to come up with specific interventions to make the village life further qualitative in terms of improved amenities and facilities.
Chief Secretary directed DCs to hold press briefings regarding second phase of B2V Programme on 21st November and 22nd November, 2019 and launch massive awareness drives across all Panchayats for robust participation of the public. He directed DCs to hold meetings with line departments to discuss follow up of the first phase of the B2V Programme and about the implementation of its second phase. He asked DCs to ensure that District Control Room is made fully functional before kickstarting of B2V Programme. “All officers of the Line departments would be trained and adequately briefed about the Programme for which DCs will draw up batch wise schedules today” Chief Secretary informed.
Chief Secretary directed DCs to share with the visiting officers a complete list of documents including B2V2 booklets/ schedules (prepared by the PD&MD and RD&PR), Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP), Plastic Disposal Plan, pamphlets/brochures of 83 individual beneficiary schemes, Panchayat wise details of languishing projects and their status, list of PM-KISAN, pension beneficiaries, newly added pension beneficiaries, scholarship beneficiaries, eligible SECC beneficiaries under PMAY, delegation orders for the Panchayat by various departments etc besides two report cards – one general about the Panchayat and the other about the first phase of B2V Programme.
Chief Secretary also emphasized on creating awareness in the Apple Districts of Kashmir Division during the B2V Programme about the Special Market Intervention Price Scheme for procurement of Apple. Further, Panchayat wise disaggregated resources of all departments and the Public Information Board displaying the same should be kept ready for unveiling by the visiting officer.
Chief Secretary further directed that officers who are part of the B2V Programme will have the Preamble read out in Gram Sabha on 26th of November, 2019 in local languages as part of the ‘Constitution Day’ celebrations. For this purpose, he directed the DCs to have sufficient copies of the Preamble and Fundamental Duties in various languages including the local languages circulated among all the offices in the district administration.
Chief Secretary stressed on DCs to gear up field functionaries for the programme and ensure that all work in close coordination and synergy and extend all possible assistance to the visiting officers so as to make the programme fruitful and outcome oriented.