Anantapur: Village volunteer system impresses Karnataka officials

Anantapur: Karnataka government recently deputed a 10-member official team to tour a few mandals in the district to study the concept of village secretariat and village volunteer system, the brainchild of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The team consisting of two IAS officers and eight other state-level officials interacted with the village secretariat staff and people and also joint collector A Siri. The members were reportedly impressed with the concept of village administration by the village secretariats and the kind of services the secretariats and volunteers are rendering.

The team members with whom 'The Hans India' spoke on telephone were amazed at the concept of gram swaraj being ushered in by the village secretariats. People's problems were being addressed in no time and every grievance redressal is time bound thus yielding very good results. Village secretariats delivering more than 500 types of services is astounding. The team toured several village secretariats in Somandepalle and Chilamattur mandals where secretariat staff efficiently made a presentation to the Karnataka team members.

The team was impressed with the kind of services being rendered to people at their doorstep. They were also amazed at the concept of one village volunteer adopting 50-60 families and extending all help to the families and ensuring they benefit from every government scheme. Joint collector A Siri said that the team visited the district a couple of days ago and was impressed by the uniqueness of the scheme and the positive impact it is making in people's lives. The Karnataka government is planning to implement a similar scheme with similar concept in their state, he said.

Prominent among the team members are IAS officers Priyanka Mary Francis and K R Nandini apart from other officials, Bellary ZP CEO K Ravanappa, panchayat raj commissionate director Ravanappa, panchayat raj resource centre director Y Goud and rural development joint director Ganesh Prasad.