RGGVY for villages in four districts
Angul, Gajapati, Ganjam, Nayagarha, RGGVY Comments Off on RGGVY for villages in four districtsFollowing is Odisha.com’s report on this.
Following is Odisha.com’s report on this.
Orissa government has announced higher salaries for doctors who are willing to go to hinterlands, especially the KBK region. Various news papers report on this. Following is an excerpt from Statesman.
… the state government today went on an overdrive announcing a revised incentive package for doctors working in KBK region and also enhancing the pay package to retired doctors who have availed contractual appointments in the same region.
Contractual appointments were given to the retired doctors/private doctors/fresh medical graduates at a consolidated remuneration of Rs.10,000/- per month in Non-KBK and Rs.12,000/- per month in KBK districts.
These appointments are given against the vacant posts of Asst. Surgeons only at periphery hospitals in the state. The government today decide that contractual doctors posted against vacant posts of Asst. Surgeons in the KBK districts and in the districts of Boudh, Kandhamal & Gajapati will henceforth get Rs.18,000/- per month.
The remuneration of doctors posted against the vacant posts of Assistant Surgeons on contractual basis in Non-KBK districts has been hiked to Rs.12,000/- per month.
Remuneration of retired doctors/private doctors having Post Graduate qualification to be appointed on contract basis against the vacant posts of Specialists at District Headquarter Hospitals & Sub Divisional Hospitals in KBK & Boudh, Kandhamal & Gajapati districts will be Rs.20,000/- per month.
The retired/private doctors having P.G. qualification appointed against the vacant posts of Specialists in the periphery hospitals in KBK region will get Rs.25,000/- per month while those in the same category but posted in non-KBK districts will get Rs.15,000/- pm.
… the government also announced several incentives to regular government doctors posted in KBK districts.
It enhanced the existing financial incentives to various levels of doctors which include regular Asst. Surgeons and Specialists of all categories (Class-II, Jr. Class-I and Sr. Class-I) and Medical Officers holding administrative posts (Jr. Class-I and Sr. Class-I) working in Koraput, Malkangiri, Nowrangpur, Rayagada, Bolangir, Sonepur, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Boudh, Kandhamal and Gajapati districts.
Assistant Surgeons & Specialists of all categories (Class-II, Jr. Class-I and Sr. Class-I) and Medical Officers holding the administrative posts (Jr. Class-I and Sr. Class-I) working at the District Headquarter Hospitals/Sub-Divisional Hospitals of Koraput, Malkangiri, Nowrangpur, Rayagada, Bolangir, Sonepur, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Boudh, Kandhamal & Gajapati districts are granted an additional incentives of Rs.4,000/- (Rupees four thousand) per month.
For the same category working in peripheral hospitals of these districts, the revised incentive was Rs 8000 pm.
The incentive will however not be admissible if the doctor is absent for more than four days or avail of any leave other than casual leave.
All the incentives are for a period of one year …
Following are excerpts from a New Indian express report on this.
As an active member of the movement, the 59- year-old woman now earns a comfortable living by making exquisite handicraft items from dried golden grass, locally known as “kainsha”.
… I get great satisfaction from making several household handicraft items from the golden grass, says Sumalata.
More than 4,000 women from 18 villages of Kamagarh, Garh Madhupur, Antia and Jenapur gram panchayats are engaged in making handicrafts from golden grass. Raw material is supplied by handicrafts society. All these women owe their economic independence to 79- year-old Pranakrushna Mohanty, the brain behind the movement in the district.
To help women of the economically backward sections become self-reliant, Mohanty and a friend, Bhikari Patnaik struck upon training them in golden grass handicrafts, which is available in plenty in the district. …
Each handicraft item takes anywhere between a day and a month to complete, and costs between Rs 10 and Rs 1,000. But these women get only a fraction of that amount as middlemen play spoilsport here too.
Following are excerpts from the New Indian Express report on this.
… The new scheme ‘Jaldhara’ would provide drinking water to 1000 villages next year. It will be funded by the State Government.
… it will be implemented through the panchayats. At least one village in each panchayat and three to five villages in each block will be covered under the scheme.
Naveen directed the Health Department to take steps to ensure drinking water provided to the villages through pipe water scheme is free from flouride and other chemicals which create health problems.
Official sources said that the State Government had taken up 1486 pipe water schemes under the swajaldhara programme funded by the Centre, of which, 963 projects have been completed. The Chief Minister directed that incomplete schemes should be completed by March next year.
… Earlier in the year, Naveen had launched the Biju KBK and the Gopabandhu Grameen Yojana to be implemented for a period of five years with a budget provision of Rs 600 crore each.
These were followed by an announcement to provide pattas to six lakh landless people. Besides, the Biju Grameen Jyoti Yojana was launched recently to supply power to habitations with a population of less than 300 people. During this financial year 1000 villages will be electrified for which a provision of Rs 100 crore has been made.
New Indian express reports that all villages in Orissa will be lighted up by 2009.
Excerpts of the report are as follows:
By 2008-end, all the villages in Orissa would be provided with electricity, said Union Minister of State for Rural Development Chandrasekhar Sahu.
He was launching the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) for Ganjam and Gajapati districts here on Thursday. He said the implementation of RGGVY in the State had been entrusted to three organisations which would supply power to every village unconditionally.
Earlier, power was supplied to the villages with more than 300 households, but the Union Government under RGGVY has decided to supply power to all the villages irrespective of number of families, he added. While the Power Grid has been entrusted with electrifying 12 districts, NTPC will electrify an equal number of districts.
The electrification of the rest six has been entrusted to NHPC, he said and added all the below poverty line families would be supplied electricity free of cost. He said the Centre is providing 90 per cent capital subsidy and the rest 10 per cent in terms of soft loan to the State Government for implementation of the programme. The Minister said 3,162 villages in Ganjam and 1,512 villages in Gajapati would get power by 2008.
D.K.Roy, Orissa in-charge of NHPC, said his organisation has been given the task of electrifying Ganjam, Gajapati, Boudh, Puri, Rayagada and Kandhamal districts. In the six districts 4,91,520 BPL families would be provided with power at an estimated cost of Rs 660.18 crore.
He said the electrification drive would be in two packages. In the first package, 55,000 BPL families in Ganjam would be supplied power at an estimated cost of Rs Rs 52.17 crore and in the second package another 57,263 BPL families would get power at an estimated cost of Rs 46.56 crores.”
Samaja has the following report on it.
New Indian Express has a report that mentions other places in Orissa where similar projects are being taken up.
Mahishiakada and Jamuganda – two villages in Dhenkanal and Nayagarh districts respectively – never had the experience of electricity.
Drawing supply lines and installing poles would almost have been unthinkable but for a non-conventional strategy. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), which included these remote villages under its Village Energy Security Programme (VESP) has electrified these two habitations of about 200 households.
A 10 kilo watt genset that uses just small wood chips has been able to give the villages – each has one – uninterrupted power for seven to 10 days at one go. The villagers, besides using it for illumination purposes in evening, are able to run water pumps too. Both projects were inaugurated earlier this week.
The VESP projects look beyond mere electrification of remote un-electrified villages for they aim to provide a holistic energy service package to people inhabiting in such pockets, Chief Executive of Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) Ajit Bhartuar said.
In fact, the two projects which have been taken up on test basis are second and third such projects taken up by MNRE in India, the first being in Madhya Pradesh.
The projects are being implemented by the Village Energy Committee members who have been trained on operational details. The committees are helped either by local NGOs or Divisional Forest Officers. While the Ministry comes up with 90 per cent assistance, balance is contributed by villagers. In cases, local development funds are also accessed.
While the Mahishiakada project has been set up at a cost of Rs 15.96 lakh, the other was established with an estimated Rs 19.56 lakh. In the State, test projects are being implemented in 13 remote villages of Koraput, Nowrangpur, Kandhamal, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Dhenkanal and Cuttack.
The following is from a PIB release.
30 DRDAs in Orissa have been sanctioned grant-in-aid of Rs.34.23 crore as balance Payment of first instalment of Central Share of funds under Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana(SGSY) during the year 2007-2008 as per details given in the Annexure.
The amount should be utilized on the Programme as per approved guidelines of SGSY. The funding pattern will be 75:25 by the Centre and the State.
The State Government should release its share within one month of the date of release of the Central assistance.
Under SGSY, assistance is given to the poor family living below the poverty line for taking up self-employment. It actively promotes group approach by organising the rural poor into Self-Help Groups.
Business Standard reports on this. Following are some excerpts.
The central government has offered Orissa Rs 10,000 crore for various power sector initiatives. The amount will be invested over a period of five years in rural, semi-urban and urban areas.
“The funds will be utilised for improving generation, distribution and transmission of power in Orissa,” A K Lakhina, chairman and managing director, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), said.
Orissa has been facing difficulties in privatisation of the sector as private enterprises are unable to pursue rural electrification with vigour, he said.
He said, the Centre has utilised the services of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) for taking up rural electrification in Orissa.
While four projects have already been sanctioned for Nayagarh, Anugul ,Ganjam and Gajapati, projects in three more districts have received the Centre’s in principle approval. All the remaining districts of the state will be covered under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), he said.
There was a feeling that villages and hamlets with sub-300 populations would not be covered under RGGVY. Orissa, having many such hamlets, was apprehensive of the success of the programme in the state. Lakhina said, the Union government is aware of the issue and the limit may be reduced to cover villages and hamlets with population of 100.
It may be noted, the Orissa government had announced launching of ‘Biju Gramjyoti Yojana’ to provide electricity to the villages and rural hamlets having less than 300 population. It also made a budget allocation of Rs.50 crore during 2007-08 for this programme.
Interestingly, the Orissa government has sought assistance of about Rs. 600 crore from REC for improving transmission. REC will examine the proposal, Lakhina said.
On reducing the transmission and distribution losses, the REC chairman said he has requested Patnaik to undertake underground wiring in the state’s premier cities which could be expanded to other areas.
New Indian Express reports on Rural development secretary Subas Pani’s visit and his suggestions to Orissa government on NREGS and PMGSY (Pradhan mantri gramsadak yojana). Following are some excerpts.
The Centre has advised the State Government to increase its spending capacity as allocation of funds is unlimited under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Union Rural Development Secretary Subas Pani … said Orissa and Bihar were two focus states of the Centre.
Pani further informed the Chief Minister that the Centre had increased the fund for capacity building. Earlier, two percent of the total allocation was meant for capacity building. Now this has been increased to four percent.
This can be better utilised for online monitoring of the projects, he said. Pani reviewed the progress of the two programmes at an official meeting and strongly advised the State Government to put an effective mechanism in place for timely execution of a large number of projects and handling such huge funds.
The State Government has submitted proposals of nearly 4,000 crore to the Rural Development Ministry under PMGSY and NREGS.
While the Panchayati Raj Department has submitted proposal for Rs 2,500 crore to the Centre under NREGS and other wage employment programmes, project proposals worth Rs 1,500 crore by the Rural Development Department are pending for clearance.
The Union Secretary strongly felt the need for a dedicated team of officials at district and State-levels for monitoring in view of the large number of projects under execution.
Over one lakh projects have been taken up under the NREGS while hundreds of rural connectivity projects are under implementation.
The Union Secretary emphasised on computerisation of gram panchayats for online monitoring of the projects.
He also suggested to involve officials of other line departments to monitor the NREGS projects.
Following are the various rural development schemes channeled through Panchayati Raj obtained from the central government web page.
Statesman reports on plans for non-conventional electrification of 70 villages in Kalahandi. Following are some excerpts.
After long wait of three years, 70 remote villages of Thuamul Rampur and Madanpur Rampur blocks of Kalahandi will at last get electrification benefit through non-conventional energy sources by coming December. The matter was reviewed here in the district level advisory committee of renewably energy, presided by the district collector Mr Pramod Kumar Patnaik.
It will be implemented by OREDA (Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency) under the Remote Village Electrification Programme of the ministry of new and renewable energy, govt. of India. The ministry has provided central assistance of about Rs.4.38 crore for this purpose.
The beneficiary families will only have to pay Rs.5 towards membership and Rs. 100 for connection charges. Under this programme 40 villages of Thuamul Rampur block and 30 villages of Madanpur Rampur block will be benefited. Out of the 70 villages, 58 villages will be provided power by connection of individual solar energy system, five villages will be electrified by bio-mass power plant and 7 villages through Solar Power Plants.
Besides this project, proposals for non-conventional Electrification of 380 more remote villages pending for long was mooted. This proposal is pending because it has not yet received clearance from Wesco. … It was decided in the Advisory Committee to set up an Energy Park in the Agriculture Farm of the horticulture department located in Raisinghpur on the outskirts of Bhawanipatna town.
Various equipment generating non-conventional energy will be installed and operated in this farm which will work as a demonstration field for the people to educate them about operation and the benefits of non-conventional energy sources.
Business Standard reports on this. Following are some excerpts.
… When several other tribal families are taking loans from the middlemen to maintain their family, 42-year-old Bati has not approached the landlord for the last three years.
Instead, she is taking a loan of grain from the grain bank in her village with a nominal grain interest to maintain her seven-member family.
“Three years ago, we were forced to borrow from the money lender to maintain our family during the rains. The grain that we used to produce went into paying the money lender,” she said.
… “We have developed our grain bank with contribution from the villagers and with support of South Orissa Voluntary Action (SOVA), one of the leading NGOs in the district,” says Gopa Jani, the president of the village committee of Puki.
For setting up the grain bank, each and every household in the village contributed food grain, including paddy and maize. In addition, SOVA contributed an equal quantity to make it a corpus fund of food grain. The grain was stocked in the traditional way in bamboo baskets to protect from insects and managed by a village committee.
“A borrower has to pay an interest of two kg and one kg for 10 kg of maize and paddy, respectively,” says Jani. The loan is repaid by the borrower after harvesting. Puki village has 69 households with a population of 244, and no one now approaches the money lenders for loans, he said.
“The grain bank helps a lot during the lean period from July to September, when we do not get any work,”…
In his village, with 22 households, mostly Kandha tribals, people borrow grain mostly in the rains.
Since last three years, grain banks have been setup in 18 villages in three panchayats of two blocks including Koraput and Kunduru.
“About 928 households of these villages have benefited from the grain banks,” Sanjeet Patnaik, president, SOVA, said. “We are trying to setup more grain banks in coming years,” he added.
The tribal people in Koraput, generally practice podu (shifting cultivation) and collect minor forest produces. Koraput has about 50 per cent tribal population.
Some of the other topics that were discussed in the assembly include the following:
Following is Samaja’s report on the above.
New Indian Express reports on the positive impact of this program. Following are some excerpts.
… today tribal villagers of Panguda, Tamuisingi, Kanda Parsamba and nearby areas in Gumma block, adopted under the Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihood Project (OTELP), are a content lot.
… when a survey was initially conducted in these villages, it was found that despite good production of pumpkin and jackfruit in the area, the economic condition of people remained poor.
As the villages are located in hilly terrain without proper communication facilities, marketing was a very difficult proposition in this part.
And, taking advantage of the backwardness of the area, people used to visit the villages during harvesting season and purchase the produce from individual households on piece-term basis.
Since the villagers had no idea about the use of a weighing machine, they used to sell the produce at throwaway prices.
Things changed when Marketing and Reach Team (MART), an organisation specialising in marketing with help of OTELP motivated the villagers to learn the benefits of collective marketing and sell the produce using a weighing machine.
“Though initially there was some reluctance to break away from the traditional practice, with persuasion, the villagers agreed,” said Gopabandhu Das, project officer, OTELP, Gajapati.
The villagers then contacted a number of traders, in and around Paralakhemundi and agreed to sell the produce to … who offered the highest price for jackfruit – Rs 4.05 per kg.
Pumpkin was sold to … who offered Rs 2.50 per kg.
Initially, 35 households, mostly women, participated and brought the produce to a common place. They sold 30 quintals of pumpkin for Rs 7500 and 23 quintals of jackfruit for Rs 11,500 and distributed the money among themselves.
“After the sale, we realised that in collective marketing, the bargaining power was in our hands. Besides, it gave us an idea about traders’ behaviour, prevailing market conditions and expected future price trend of the product,” …
New Indian Express reports on the energy minister’s statement on this in the assembly. Following are some excerpts.
Energy Minister Surya Narayan Patro … announced in the Assembly the Government’s commitment to provide electricity to all villages and hamlets in the State by the end of Eleventh Five Year Plan.
The State Government would formulate a captive power policy (CPP) for the captive power plants, he said. … the Minister said rural electrification is being carried out by the State Government under three schemes – Minimum Needs Programme (MNP), Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) and Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutkaran Yojana (RGGVY).
Stating that the Government has submitted the detailed project reports (DPRs) to the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for 30 districts, the Minister said the DPRs of Angul, Nayagarh, Ganjam, Gajapati and Jajpur districts have been approved. Besides, the DPRs of three more districts – Balasore, Bhadrak and Puri – have received in-principle approval.
The Minister said the Centre has released Rs 92.85 crore in the first phase to the NTPC and NHPC to take up rural electrification work in Angul, Nayagarh and Ganjam districts.
Referring to the Biju Gramjyoti Yojana (BGY) announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently, the Patro said under the programme hamlets with less than 300 population will be electrified. He said the Centre rejected the State Government’s request to include hamlets with less than 300 population in the RGGVY.
The State Government has set a target to provide Rs 1000 crore for the programme in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and provided Rs 50 crore in the 2007-08 financial year. Besides, the State Government has also made a provision of Rs 120 crore under the Biju KBK Yojana for providing electricity, road and drinking water to villages.
The Minister informed the House that the Government has undertaken electrification of 4,499 villages under the MNP for which the Centre has provided Rs 120 crore so far. He said by May-end, 3,736 villages have been electrified under the programme.
Stating that five special police stations have been set up to check theft of power and related crimes, the Minister said special courts have been opened to try these cases.
Patro announced that police stations and courts would be set up in the rest of the districts during the year.
Following is Samaja’s coverage on this.
New Indian Express reports on the minister’s statement on this topic in the assembly. Following are some excerpts:
Rural Development Minister Biswabhusan Harichandan announced in the Assembly on Saturday that 1,722 drinking water projects would be taken up in the State during the current financial year.
… the minister said the State Government has written to the Centre to waive the 10 percent contribution of the beneficiaries under the Swajaldhara scheme. …
Observing that the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) has been a huge success in Orissa, the minister said the State has secured the fifth position in the country in the implementation of the programme.
The Centre had sanctioned Rs 3,342.54 crore between 2000-01 and 2006-07 for construction of 3,723 roads having a length of 12,545.22 km, he said.
Harichandan announced that a target has been fixed for construction of 3,124- km road and upgradation of 2,798-km road under the PMGSY during the 2007-08 financial year.
Expenditure under the schemes funded by the awards of the Twelfth Finance Commission has also been satisfactory, Observing that the total sanitation programme is also a focus area of the government, the minister said Rs 8 crore has been provided in the budget for the programme in 2007-08.
He announced that 12 more divisions of the Rural Development department in addition to the present eight would be opened.
New Indian Express reports the Orissa minister’s statement on this regard in the assembly. Following are some excerpts:
Refuting Opposition charges that the State Government has paid no attention to flood control measures, Planning and Coordination Minister Padmanabha Behera said a master plan is being prepared in this regard for Tel river basin.
The State Government has also decided to construct a barrage at Barmul on river Mahanadi as a part of flood control measure. Only seven villages would be submerged because of the project, he said.
He reiterated the State Government’s commitment to irrigate 35 percent agriculture land in all the blocks in the State. … the minister said out of the 314 blocks, 194 blocks have less than 35 percent irrigated agriculture land.
More than 60 percent of these blocks are in KBK and backward areas, … and … steps have been initiated under different programmes to increase the land under irrigation in these blocks.
Stating that the project to link Bansadhara with Rushikulya river would not be economically viable, the Minister said the State Government was contemplating to implement Lower Bansadhara project which can irrigate 31,000 hectares.
… Leader of Opposition J B Patnaik said 40,000 hectare agriculture land can be brought under irrigation if a dam is constructed on the upper basin of Mahendra Tanaya river.
…, JB said 30 lakh acres could be brought under irrigation within the next five years by spending Rs 8,000 crore. He said pani panchayats should be scrapped.
Following is from a Zee News report.
With the aim to accelerate development in rural areas, the Centre has released Rs 1346 crore to Orissa under various programmes in 2006-07, out of which Rs 762 crore has been allocated under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act covering 19 districts.
During the current fiscal, the Government has so far released Rs 445 crore to Orissa against the central allocation of Rs 614 crore under major allocation based schemes, official sources said.
Under the NREGA, a total 799.34 lakh person days employment were generated, of which 198.06 lakh person days were for SCs, 393.87 for STs, 284.58 for women and 216.41 lakh persons days for others.
A total of 51,521 works were taken up in the state under the programmes, out of which 18,803 works have been completed and 32,718 are ongoing.
During 2007-08, five additional districts have been included under NREGA. Central release is Rs 94.20 crore and total available funds as on April 1, was Rs 263.28 crore, out of which expenditure of Rs 16.52 crore has been reported.
Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the entitlement of Orissa from 2000-01 till 2006-07 was Rs 1,411 crore against which Rs 1804 crore has already been released and Rs 1638.29 crore has been spent by the state government.
Under Bharat Nirman programme, 2312 habitations of 1000 plus population and 2135 habitations of 500 plus population are proposed to be covered and 9993.36 km road is proposed to be constructed under it in Orissa, they said.
DailyIndia.com reports about a village in Bouda district where artisans make copper snakes that are used in temples all over India. Following are excerpts from that report.
Gudbhelipadar Village in Orissa’s Bouda District is today known for its dozens of coppersmith families who have gained popularity for their copper snakes used in different parts of the country.
Each of these over forty families takes pride in the fact that it has been successful at carrying forward a legacy despite all odds. …
These coppersmith families belong to Maharana caste and locally known as “Meher”. They have been involved in this work of making copper snakes since ages. All these years, these families have cherished a dream to keep the ancestral art alive. …
Praful Kumar, another artisan, said: “First, we cut the copper sheet in different body parts of snake, we heat them up. After that, we bend the copper from where we want to and at that time we need lead. We bend it using lead and give it final look.”
Snakes prepared in this village have been placed in various famous temples. Besides various parts of Orissa, these snakes are sent to various places like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and various places in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.