Rural Development: World Bank to aid West Bengal Govt

The West Bengal Government is soon to get financial aid worth Rs 3,000 crore from the World Bank for panchayati raj development schemes. This would cover a thousand more panchayats.

This comes after the earlier tranche of $200 million for the same purpose. According to the World Bank, the state has completed 98% of the projected work, in lieu of the earlier tranche, on certain parameters, against a target of 80%, by the end of last year.

The World Bank has heaped praise on the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led State Government for the successful developmental work done in the panchayats. The work has been held up as a model for other States to follow.

With the new aid, the State Government would execute projects in the districts of Purulia, Bankura and Paschim Medinipur.

The earlier projects have helped the gram panchayats in generating more revenue, in increasing the revenue of panchayats by around 24%.

 

গ্রামীণ উন্নয়নে রাজ্য সরকারকে সাহায্য বিশ্ব ব্যাঙ্কের

গ্রামোন্নয়ন প্রকল্পের জন্য খুব শীঘ্রই পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার বিশ্ব ব্যাঙ্কের কাছ থেকে ৩০০০ কোটি টাকা সাহায্য পেতে চলেছে। এক হাজারেরও বেশি পঞ্চায়েত এই প্রকল্পের আওতায় আসবে।

বিশ্ব ব্যাঙ্কের রিপোর্ট অনুযায়ী রাজ্য প্রকল্পের ৯৮% কাজ সম্পূর্ণ করে ফেলেছে।

পঞ্চায়েতের উন্নয়নমূলক কাজের জন্য মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় পরিচালিত রাজ্য সরকারের প্রশংসা করেছে বিশ্ব ব্যাঙ্ক। নিঃসন্দেহে রাজ্যের এই কাজ অন্যান্য রাজ্যের কাছে একটি মডেল।

এই নতুন আর্থিক সাহায্যের মাধ্যমে রাজ্য সরকার পুরুলিয়া, বাঁকুড়া ও পশ্চিম মেদিনীপুরে বেশ কিছু নতুন প্রকল্প শুরু করবে।

এই প্রকল্প গুলি গ্রাম পঞ্চায়েতের রাজস্ব বৃদ্ধিতে সহায়তা করবে, পঞ্চায়েতের প্রায় ২৪% রাজস্ব বৃদ্ধি পাবে এর মাধ্যমে।

E-governance a reality by 2020: Amit Mitra

In a bid to come out ahead in the digital revolution race, the state government plans to put in place an e-governance structure by 2020.

Speaking at INFOCOM on Saturday, state finance, IT, commerce & industries minister Dr Amit Mitra said that as the first step, the state government is rolling out the optical fibre network under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project.

He said that the target was to connect all the 3.354 gram panchayats in Bengal through the broadband network so as to spread e-governance to the last yard.

“All the district headquarters are already connected through the network and video conferencing between the district magistrates and Nabanna is a reality now. Mamata Banerjee wants the digital revolution to be spread to the grassroots,” he added.

According to Dr Mitra, 244 out of the total 247 registration offices in the state have already been connected through broadband. Besides, 341 blocks too have been connected through broadband and more than 7,000km of optical fibre line has already been laid in 565 gram panchayats.

Commenting on the telecom revolution in the state, Mitra said that the teledensity in West Bengal is now tou ching 75%. The urban teledensity in the state is 135.77% while that of rural Bengal is 49.8%. The mobile subscriber base in the state has crossed the 79 million mark out of 93 million people.

“What is most interesting is the internet connection in the state. There are 19.20 million internet subscribers in the state, out of which 7.03 million are rural individuals. This implies that rural Bengal is gradually becoming tech savvy,” the minister said.

Dr Mitra also stressed on the need to give major push to animation and startups.

“Bengal was always known for innovation, so I think we could do well in ani mation. I know Bengalies doing extremely well in this profession overseas,” he added.

Commenting on startups, he added that in the US, startups are the largest employment generator. He said he feels that this can happen here as well.

“We have already come out with a venture capital fund for MSME, which includes startups as well. A reality show on startups is being and we have already received around 1,500 applications from potential entrepreneurs,” Dr Mitra added.

Mobile Monitoring System using GIS to cover all panchayats in Bengal

The West Bengal Government is setting up Mobile Monitoring System using GIS for keeping an eye on the works being done at all the panchayats. This android phone-based monitoring system is already in place in one thousand panchayats and will be applicable within one year in the rest 2349 panchayats.

Through this system, the Panchayat Minister and the officials of the State Secretariat at Nabanna will be able to monitor the works of the district officials based in the rural areas.

The State Government will provide android-based mobile phones to all the district officials responsible for panchayat development. The officers of the panchayat department are now visiting rural areas to train the panchayat workers to upload the developmental progress details through their mobile phones every 15 days.

From now on, the rural officials have to upload pictures of every projects undertaken by the panchayats at regular intervals, including those of Gram Sabhas. The pictures and records will be uploaded on the Panchayat department website and will thus be accessible from any part of the world.

WB Govt to appoint Aranya Bandhus to protect green cover

The Mamata Banerjee government is appointing more than 48,000 aranya bandhus (friends of the forest) to protect Bengal’s green cover.The aranya bandhus have been categorised as self-employed workers.

An aranya bandhu will be appointed for each panchayat. Those eligible for the post will have to be permanent residents of their respective gram panchayats. The candidates, ideally aged between 21 years and 45 years, will also have to have a minimum qualification of a pass in madhyamik.

Protecting forests

The primary job of the aranya bandhus will be to alert the forest department whenever a tree is felled. The green guards will also organise campaigns for awareness on afforestation. They will act as a liaison between the people and the forest department and help resolve issues that require trees to be chopped off.

The forest guards will also ensure compensatory afforestation according to appropriate legal provisions if trees have to be felled for any unavoidable reason.

Functions of Aranya Bandhu

A government order related to appointment of the green guards says, “Engagement of aranya bandhu has been decided upon to facilitate afforestation. To encourage afforestation in rural areas, engagement of local persons as aranya bandhu has been under active consideration of the forest department for some time.“

Other functions and responsibilities of the aranya bandhus will include raising and supplying quality planting materials (seedlings) to tree growers, forest department and panchayat bodies and to involve themselves in planting and maintenance of greeneries.

The aranya bandhus will approach range and beat officers for issuance of transit and other permits.

Bengal shines at SKOCH Awards for smart governance

Fair Price Medicine Shops and CCU in districts of West Bengal have been ranked best project in the country in the health sector and were honoured with the prestigious SKOCH Award of Excellence.

Also, Bengal is on the top spot nationally in Finance and amongst the top three states in Agriculture and Rural Development and Governance.

Kanyashree, e-Governance project of KMC, web-based integrated monitoring system of panchayat bodies and GRIPS of the Directorate of Commercial Taxes are also among the winners.

Overall, the award authorities have adjudged Bengal as the state with maximum improvement in performance during last one year.

Reacting to the honour for Bengal in various sectors, West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee wrote on her social media pages: “Hearty congratulations and best wishes to my entire ‘Paschimbanga Paribar’.”

Bengal launches Anandadhara helpline for self-help groups

The Grameen Jivika Mission under the Panchayat department of West Bengal has started the Anandadhara Helpline, mainly for the women working in the self-help groups.

The Toll free Helpline Number is: 1800-2000-8864.

The project was inaugurated in Bengal by the West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee on May 17, 2012. The focus of the mission is to help the sale of the handicrafts and other products made by poor village women.

At present there are more than four lakh self help groups and more than 50 lakh women are attached to them. The Helpline will be able to guide the women about the functioning of self help groups, the processes of skill development and other related information.

The Helpline will also feature suggestions by skilled people designated to solve day-to-day problems regarding self help group’s functioning.

Poor people are the backbone of the country: WB CM

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for better coordination between states and the Centre for overall development of the states and the country.

“If the states and the Centre work together in coordination, it will help in the overall development of the masses,” Ms Banerjee said at a function at Nazrul Mancha in Kolkata.

She also urged the Centre to ensure that at least every panchayat in the country is covered by banking services.

“After I came to power in 2011 more than 1,000 panchayats out of 3,500 in the state did not have banks. Then we offered one rupee rent to banks and asked them to open branches. We have been able to open 171 banks out of the 1,000 left. I would request the Centre to see that at least every panchayat is covered by banking services so that it helps the poor,” she said.

Citing the achievements of the TMC government in the empowerment of girls, WB CM spoke about the success of the ‘Kanyashree’ project which has covered 24 lakh girl child in the state. She said while Centre allocated only Rs 100 crore for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Bengal had allocated Rs 1000 crore for Kanyashree scheme.

WB CM writes to Centre to help potato farmers of the state

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to finance minister Arun Jaitley recently to rescue the potato farmers of the state suffering due to a bumper crop this season.

Listing the number of steps already taken by the Bengal government to ensure that the record 1 lakh, 20 thousand metric tonne yield fetches a fair price, WB CM has urged the Centre to take some specific measures that the Centre can take to bail out the farmers.

Concrete steps by State

In her second letter to Jaitley, after one she wrote on April 9, CM said that the state government has taken steps like, directly procuring potato from farmers for supplying to ICDS and midday meal beneficiaries, providing transport subsidy for inter-state movement of potato by the railways, subsidy for exporting potato from the Calcutta port.

In the letter, the CM has asked the finance minister to waive loans taken by potato farmers and also allow fresh loans for the kharif crop.

Letter against curtailing rural dev funds

WB CM has also written a letter to the Centre, opposing any move to reduce funds already sanctioned for rural development projects.

“Recently, the Union government has given us a letter informing about curtailment of funds for a number of rural development schemes, like the Backward Regions Grants Fund and the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhijan fund meant for strengthening panchayat infrastructure,” Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee said. “I shall visit Delhi to talk to the Centre on this issue.”

Bengal panchayats being brought under GIS

Digital Rural Bengal! Yes and it is not a story but reality. All what it needed is a click of a mouse and details of every project in each village and the progress thereof will be available at one go. This is known as ‘Geophysical Information System’ (GIS). The Department of Panchayat Affairs and Rural Development, Govt of West Bengal is developing a website with GIS and along with Management Information System (MIS) wherein the common man with a click of a mouse will come to know the progress of development work being done in the villages of West Bengal.

At the initial stage 3354 villages of the State have been selected to be brought under this facility. Digital mapping and scaling have also started to carry this out. The project is being done with the help of World Bank under the scheme – ‘Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayats’ (ISGP). Gradually all Gram Panchayats of West Bengal will be covered under this scheme.

This will not only ensure transparency but also will keep the public updated about each project and the money spent towards the same. To make the system easily accessible the Panchayat Department is distributing android phones to the Panchayat workers.

The website will give details of the following:

• Every stage of the progress of the project will be filmed and put up for the public to view

• Money spent at every stage will be given

• Seven days prior to the completion inspection call will be sent out to the concerned employees who can film and put up the pictures and the expenses incurred

• After the work is over, the budget vis-a-vis actual expenses will be given for all to know the deviation, if any.

This scheme has been appreciated and applauded in all India Level. World renowned think-tank ‘Skoch Development Foundation’ will hand over certificate of appreciation to West Bengal at a seminar on 20-21st March, 2015.