‘Come up with schemes for rural development’

‘Bhagya Lakshmi scheme has become a national model’

Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj K.S. Eshwarappa has urged officials to come up with innovative schemes for rural development and for strengthening Panchayat Raj institutions.

“Politicians become Ministers and always remain in the limelight. But it is the officers who come up with plans for schemes and programmes and implement them properly. Schemes, including the ‘budget for agriculture’ and Bhagya Lakshmi for female child welfare, were started in the State and they became a model for the whole country. I request you to come up with pro-people schemes to help us reach out to the public more effectively,” he said.

He was speaking at a meeting of chief executive officers of all zilla panchayats at the Suvarna Soudha here on Sunday.

Mr. Eshwarappa said that he was blessed to become the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister and hoped that he would work for the welfare of the poorest of the poor in the State.

“We have failed to provide basic amenities such as drinking water in all villages, despite spending significant amounts of money and after implementing several schemes. We should all introspect about it,” he said.

“Even today there are several villages where women don’t use toilets. They defecate in the open. What if we are put in their position? We should pose such questions to ourselves,” he said.

“We have made big strides towards toilet construction, but we are yet to reach the goal of open defecation-free status in the whole State,” Mr. Eshwarappa said.

“The government has performed well as far as schemes are concerned and earned a good name at the national level. But we need to do better. I know that all officials in the department are not bad. Some dishonest or lazy officers bring a bad name to the government. We should remember this,” he said.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj principal secretary Uma Mahadevan and Rural Drinking Water Supply Commissioner R. Vishal and other officers were present.

Source: Read Full Article