Bengal Panchayat Dept steps up to utilise schemes for rural populace

Series of schemes taken up by the West Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development department in the past five years to make rural populace economically self reliant have created wonders and have changed the quality of life of thousands of people throughout the state.

People coming from economically challenged background who never dreamt of becoming economically independent are earning money by doing fish cultivation or by manufacturing bricks from fly ash. Even the residents of leper colony in Bankura who got cured but used to earn livelihood by begging because of social stigma are on the way to achieve self reliance through mango and vegetable cultivation in Bankura.

The good work of the department has been accepted by the ministry of Rural Development and in recognition the Centre has given an award early this year. It may be mentioned Nadia has become country’s first Open Defecation Free (ODF) district.

The district is going ahead of other districts in generating quality horticulture produce like gerbera flowers, capsicum under shed-net house and poly house by using NREGA fund. Two gram panchayats, Dharmada and Bilwagram Gram under Nakashipara block have become specialists in this field.

Large numbers of poly house, shed-net houses have been constructed. Since 2015-16 financial year, construction of poly houses in 7 organic villages has been made possible by rightly using the schemes.

 

গ্রামের মানুষের জন্য পঞ্চায়েত দপ্তরের বেশ কিছু নয়া উদ্যোগ

গত পাঁচ বছরের মধ্যে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ পঞ্চায়েত ও গ্রামোন্নয়ন দপ্তর দ্বারা গৃহীত প্রকল্প গুলি গ্রামীণ জনসাধারণকে অর্থনৈতিকভাবে স্বনির্ভর করেছে এবং এর ফলে রাজ্য জুড়ে হাজার হাজার মানুষ জীবনযাত্রার মান বদলে গেছে।

আর্থিকভাবে পিছিয়ে পরা মানুষ যারা কখনো অর্থনৈতিকভাবে স্বাধীন হওয়ার স্বপ্ন দেখত না তারা এখন মাছ চাষ করছেন, ইট উত্পাদন করে টাকা উপার্জন করছেন।

দপ্তরের ভাল কাজ কেন্দ্রীয় গ্রামোন্নয়ন মন্ত্রক দ্বারা গৃহীত হয়েছে এবং স্বীকৃতিস্বরূপ  এই বছরের গোড়ার দিকে এই বিভাগ একটি পুরস্কারও পেয়েছে। এটা উল্লেখযোগ্য,  যে নদীয়া দেশের প্রথম ODF জেলা হিসেবে স্বীকৃতি পেয়েছে।

এনআরইজিএ তহবিল ব্যবহার করে নদিয়া জেলায় শেড-নেট হাউস এবং পলি হাউসে উন্নত মানের গ্যারবেরা ফুল ও ক্যাপসিকামের উৎপাদনের ওপর জোর দেওয়া হচ্ছে।  নাকাশিপাড়া  ব্লকের দুটি গ্রাম পঞ্চায়েত ধর্মদা এবং বিল্বগ্রাম এই কাজের জন্য উল্লেখযোগ্য।

অনেকগুলি পলি হাউস নির্মাণ করা হয়েছে। ২০১৫-১৬ আর্থিক বছরে ৭টি  অরগ্যানিক ভিলেজে অনেকগুলি পলি হাউস নির্মাণ সম্ভব হয়েছে।

 

Bengal surging ahead in Horticulture

Actions speak louder than rhetoric.  Date regarding horticulture clearly show that this sector has registered immense growth under Trinamool. Here is a comparison of parameters during the last 3 years of the CPM rule ( 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11) and the first 3 years of Trinamool’s governance ( 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14):

 

Poly House and Shed Net House: 

Poly Houses and Shed Net Houses are built for climate controlled ventilated areas which are essential for horticulture.  Poly house concept emerged to undertake adverse environmental conditions such as excess rainfall, temperature, cold conditions, airflow etc. India and Holland both have more or less the same area under flower cultivation, but Holland amounts to 70% of flower export and India about 1% in the global market. The difference is due to use of Poly houses and Shed net houses and use of advanced technology.

Graph 1_horticulture

In terms of new area covered under Poly house technology and Shed net house, the performance of Trinamool Congress is much higher than the Left rule. 58,200 meters of Poly house are constructed in the last 3 years as against 5520 meters of Left regime. The success of construction of Shed net house is even more. In comparison to just 448 sq meters in the Left rule, 3,21,180 sq mts have been constructed in the last 3 years.

Graph 2_horticulture

The average numbers of Poly houses build per year in the last 3 years are 19,400 as compared to just 1840 in the last 3 years of Left rule. The annual average numbers of Shed net houses build is 7,060 under Trinamool’s governance.

 

Area added:

In the last 3 years, 15,611 hectares of land are added for fruit cultivation and 3631 hectares for flower cultivation.

Graph 3_horticulture

 

Some significant developments:

  • West Bengal Government has taken up initiatives of horticulture through NREGA. It is worth mentioning that Bankura has received the prestigious “District Award for Effective Initiatives under MGNREGA Administration.”
  • 384 skill development camps have been organised.
  • The government has passed the Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Bill 2014. This bill will promote formation of new markets where farmers can directly sell the product to the end users, curb the middlemen menace, thus the interest of both the farmers and the customers will be taken care of. Government will regulate these markets.
  • More than 2800 farmers related with horticulture have been assisted with power tillers, tractors, power pumps and other automated machines.
  • Government assisted Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme has been implemented. More than 8000 farmers (Kharif season) and 4000 ( Rabi season) has benefited from this.