The Hindu : Other States / Madhya Pradesh News : M.P. to ensure development of villages

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Thursday, Sep 16, 2004

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M.P. to ensure development of villages

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, SEPT. 15. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Madhya Pradesh Government is committed to "ensuring comprehensive development of villages and creating employment opportunities for the rural youth by promoting self-help groups, village industry, rural artisans and craftsmen."

This was emphasised by the Madhya Pradesh Minister for Panchayats, Rural development and Gramodyog (village industries), Narendra Singh Tomar, in an exclusive conversation here with this correspondent. He said that the larger objective was to ensure that all villages in the State got the basic facilities that were available to the people in urban areas. As a first step towards fulfilling this objective, he said, an ambitious scheme was being launched on September 25, which happens to be the birth anniversary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Under this scheme, the Government would focus its efforts in the first stage on upgrading the existing infrastructure and providing all basic amenities in five selected villages in each district of Madhya Pradesh. The larger goal is to reach out to every village and ensure their comprehensive development, he added.

Mr. Tomar said that "sincere" efforts were being made to develop a system so that maximum works get implemented in the rural areas through the Panchayati Raj institutions. For this purpose, the Panchayati Raj system was being strengthened and the concerned officials had been told to ensure cent per cent utilization of funds meant for villages. It had also be conveyed in categorical terms at all administrative levels that these funds should be released within the targeted period and there be a strict monitoring on this count, he pointed out. Mr. Tomar said that the State Revenue Department is being asked to add few more clauses to the Land Revenue Code for the rural areas so that land use in villages could be clearly defined and rationalised. He stressed the need for identifying and reserving land in villages for various community purposes.

To a pointed query, he said that the total area of grazing land, which has already come down to alarming levels in the State, would not be allowed to decrease further under any circumstances. He said that special efforts would be made to expand the marketing network within the country and abroad for the village industry products now being marketed through the Government's initiative under the brand name of Vindhya Valley.

Mr. Tomar said that special efforts would be made to protect the environment by focusing efforts on building alternative sources of energy. He emphasized the urgent need to decrease the demand for firewood and said that villagers would be encouraged to go for dairy, cattle rearing and use cow dung as alternative source of energy for their domestic kitchens.

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M.P. to ensure development of villages