Gram sabhas aid holistic village development

Chittoor: The state government’s efforts to rejuvenate gram panchayats which were largely neglected during the five-year rule of the YSRCP, have started to bear fruit. In a key decision, the government conducted gram sabhas on August 23 across the state marking a significant step toward comprehensive rural development.

Giving a boost to gram panchayats, gram sabhas facilitated identification of 1,407 projects in 700 panchayats with an estimated cost of Rs 91.30 crore, which include various works. These works are now at approval stage. Out of these, Rs 63 crore cement roads were already approved and the administrative process which includes preparing estimates, sanctioning technical approvals, geo-tagging among other things has been completed.

Gram sabhas proved to be a boon for the villages as the villagers were made to identify essential facilities and infrastructure projects. As such, they received overwhelming response from the villagers in all gram sabhas while the MPDO, tahsildar, Panchayat secretary and others monitored the proceedings to list out the infrastructural needs of each village.

Besides CC roads, additional works such as CC drains and cattle sheds were also identified. As many as 207 such projects, worth Rs 23 crore, are expected to be approved shortly. The government aims to complete all these works identified during the village assemblies by March next year, with MLAs being urged to initiate the approved CC road projects without delay as the roads were grossly neglected during the last five years and are now in a very bad shape.

Special priority is being given to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s constituency Kuppam where the government has already approved the construction of a Kendriya Vidyalaya (Central School), with site inspections completed and land issues resolved.

District collector Sumit Kumar personally attends grievance day programme once in every fortnight, addressing local problems. Recently, the administration identified around 5,700 elderly persons suffering from vision-related issues and by the end of this month, 4,000 of them will receive eyeglasses through a mega camp. Further, surgeries will be performed for 700 individuals within the next three months.

Kuppam has also been given precedence in the approval of CC road projects, with Rs15.43 crore allocated for 223 works, the highest among all constituencies. Puthalapattu comes second in terms of approvals, while Nagari stands last. These developments are expected to make a positive impact in rural areas of the district.