Kathua, Nov 2: The Jammu and Kashmir government’s mega public outreach programme ‘Back To Village’ fourth edition (B2V4) is in full swing across the length and breadth of the Union Territory.
The marathon outreach programme is expected to involve around 15-20 lakh rural citizens. Nearly 65,000 self employment cases would be taken up by the government and the Banks, while over 1,00,000 youth shall be identified for skill training.
The main objective of the exercise, that involves whole government machinery, is to make the rural economy self-reliant and self-sufficient by exposing ruralites to new skills, vocational training and covering them under tailor made government schemes of self employment through proper hand holding, Principal Secretary, Information, and Higher Education, Rohit Kansal said.
He made these remarks during his visit to remote Panchayat Hutt in district Kathua where he presided over an array of activities during the ongoing Back to Village programme Phase-4.
“The interesting part of the programme is that visiting officers deputed to Gram Panchayats would act as mentors for one year for their respective Panchayats and act as a bridge between them and the government,” Principal Secretary Kansal said.
He urged the rural populace to actively participate in the ongoing ‘Back to Village Programme’ which is meant to assess the developmental achievements projected during previous B2V programmes.
Referring to the record tourist footfall in J&K during the current year, Kansal said Panchayat Hutt also holds tremendous potential to emerge as one of the attractive tourist destinations owing to its picturesque and scenic beauty.
Rohit Kansal, who was the Visiting Officer on the occasion, directed the officers to focus on saturation of all schemes of their respective departments to provide benefits to deserving people in a transparent and hassle free manner.
While interacting with the students, he took feedback from them about facilities available for them in the Panchayat.
The Visiting Officer also participated in Gram Sabha wherein he interacted with representatives of PRIs to take stock of their issues pertaining to welfare and development of their respective areas.
After giving patient hearing to the concerns of the Panchayat inhabitants, he assured that their genuine issues like road connectivity, piped water supply, disbursal of local area development fund (LADF) from NHPC SEWA project, shortage of school and medical staff will be taken up with concerned at appropriate levels to ease out the sufferings of the local populace.
Later, Rohit Kansal also distributed the loan sanctioned letters of various government schemes viz PMEGP, Banks besides distributing AB-PMJAY Health cards. He also distributed land passbooks among the local land owners.
Earlier, the Principal Secretary planted a sapling in the premises of GHSS Hutt where he appealed to people to encourage afforestation as a means to keep the environment clean and green. He also flagged off a rally of Anganwadi workers.
He also visited the under construction CFC Hutt building, besides inspected other developmental works of the panchayat. He also took feedback from the general public about the implementation of welfare schemes as well as developmental activities being executed in their respective areas.
DDC Chairperson Kathua, Mahan Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Rahul Pandey, ADC Basohli Ajeet Singh, District and Sectoral officers, Sarpanch Surinder Singh and other concerned officers accompanied the Visiting Officer.
