Officials must feel happy in serving rural areas, says Felix

ITANAGAR, Feb 5: “Officers and officials must feel happy in serving the rural poor as part of their mandated duty,” Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Bameng Felix said on Tuesday, while exhorting the heads of RD and PR departments to activate and streamline the functioning of their respective departments at the earliest.
Reviewing the physical and financial progress of all programmes being implemented by the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj departments, Arunachal State Rural Livelihoods Mission, State Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (SIRD&PR) in a meeting here at the Dorjee Khandu auditorium of the state legislative assembly, Felix said, “There is a need for ensuring meaningful development of rural areas so that the happiness index of the state increases and the rural poor who have migrated to urban towns feel happy in going back to their respective villages.”
“This would happen only when there is proper connectivity and availability of required facilities of education, health, livelihoods in the villages,” he said.
He also made it clear that “significant improvement” in performance is expected from financial year 2020-2021 onwards from RD and RR departments, ArSRLM and SIRD&PR
Felix also emphasised on capacity building and regular upgrading of skills of all officials, adding that “absence of senior officials from training and not putting desired efforts in upgrading their skills and knowledge was not warranted.”
Appreciating the efforts of the ArSRLM in nurturing the self help groups (SHGs) under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY NRLM), he advised on using information, education and communication tools for improving the outreach and mobilisation of community in development programmes.
He called for the next review meeting after two months where detailed district wise review would be taken separately for all departments.
Also speaking on the occasion, RD and PR Secretary Govind Jaiswal said that there is a need for structured interaction which would help in better understanding ways and means of addressing challenges concerning achievement of outputs.
Emphasizing on the need for a systematic approach in planning and implementation of RD and PR programmes, he also encouraged the officials to come up with constructive suggestions for improving the efficacy of development programmes.
Special Secretary RD and PR cum Director RD Peelee Ete gave an overview of RD programmes, while district-wise presentations were made by concerned officers of Dibang Valley, Kra Daadi, East Kameng, West Kameng, Tawang and Namsai.
Techi Aka from Nokum PLF shared her experience of being an SHG member and executive committee member of a Primary Level Federation (PLF) under DAY NRLM. She also explained about the activities being undertaken by the SHGs and PLFs under DAY NRLM.
Among others, directors and senior officials of concerned departments, district Panchayati Raj development officers, project directors of district rural development agencies, block development officers, officials from block mission management units under ArSRLM, and members of SHGs under ArSRLM participated in the review meeting.