Third phase of Back to Village Programme begins today

Srinagar: The third phase of the Back to Village programme in Jammu & Kashmir began on Friday as over 4,000 officers started visiting villages to resolve local issues, officials said and added the first two phases of the scheme have been successful.

Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said the beginning of the third phase has coincided with Gandhi Jayanti and called it a perfect way to honour the Father of the Nation on his birth anniversary.

“Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj, a decentralised form of government. Following the Gandhian ideas of Gram Swaraj and Panchayati Raj system, the Jammu & Kashmir government is making untiring efforts to reach out to the people and including all the stakeholders in the process of decision-making and public policy formulation to bring a positive social and political change.”

Sinha said the programme is a unique and ambitious exercise to reach the people’s doorsteps with responsive, accountable and equitable governance promoting values, ideology and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi.

“The ambitious programme starting from October 2 [Friday] is also seen as a unique effort of the government to strengthen the newly constituted Panchayats,” Sinha said. He added the endeavour is as challenging as ambitious. “It involves visits of over 4,000 gazetted officers to each and every Panchayat so that they can be well versed with the local issues and developmental needs. It also aims at ensuring that beneficiary-oriented schemes actually reach the last person.” (HT)