Shillong, Jan 09: As part of its ongoing program of interacting with Village Employment Councils (VECs) across the State, An open interaction was held on 8th January 2014, by the Meghalaya State Planning Board, Working Group-III, with officer bearers namely Chairman, Secretary, and Women’s representatives of the 320 Village Employment Councils (VEC) under Mawshynrut C&RD Block, West Khasi Hills District, at Riangdo 140 kms from Shillong, to hear their suggestions on the Progress of Schemes, the implementation and achievements of various developmental schemes especially the challenges related to Mahatma Gandhi NREGS /NREGA.
The Mawshynrut C&RD Block is one of the second largest Block in Meghalaya with over 324 Village Employment Councils.
The meeting was held at Riangdo, Mawshynrut C&RD Block office, 155 kms from Shillong, and was opened by Shri. Madondor Tongper, MCS, BDO, Mawshynrut, and chaired by Shri. John F Kharshiing, Co-Chairman, MSPB, & Chairman, Grand Council of Chiefs of Meghalaya, and Dr(Mrs) Eureka Lyngdoh Mawlong, in presence of the Gram Sevaks and officials of the C&RD Block.
Prior to the meeting the Co-Chairman and Deputy Chairman, had a meeting with the BDO and the Gram Sevak’s who provided critical support to the delivery system of the State Government. The officials of the Mawshynrut C&RD Block expressed concern as to the difficulty in accessing the remote villages during the monsoons as most of them are yet to have all weather roads, including the difficult and poor tele-communication network.
The Co-Chairman, Bah John F Kharshiing, urged the Gram Sevaks to play a facilitator role as they were key links of government and suggested a number of important steps that could be taken by the Block Officials to facilitate and enhance crucial data and census for the Government at all levels.
The open session with the more than over 320 VEC representatives, was held wherein all were allowed to speak and to give their views and suggestions, and were given 2 minutes each to present their views and suggestions.
The representatives of the VECs from 320 villages, from far flung areas of West Khasi Hills expressed their satisfaction and gratitude to the Government of India, as to the nature of the MGNREGS, and all agreed that this flag ship program of the Central Government for last five years (2008 to 2013) had indeed started slowly changing their villages.
The views and suggestions were that; Mawshynrut C&RD Block, West Khasi Hills, is probably one of the largest in terms of geographical area and can be considered as the most backward among the 39 C&RD Blocks. More than 150 out of the 320 VECs do not have all weather roads, more than 100 VECs have no potable drinking water, and more than 20 VECs have no electricity. On the challenges in implementing the MGNREGS, the VEC and AEC representatives stated that there was urgent need for Government of India to enhance and expand Mahatma Gandhi NREGA activites so as to include other delevelopmental aspects. The absence of Banks is another hurdle as people have to travel long distance, spend a lot, travel 130 Kms to find a Bank and suggested that there should be exceptions in such situations. All were unanimous that the daily wage should be enhanced to realistic present day wage rates.
The VEC representatives urged the MSPB to recommend to the State Government for allowing Blacktopping of roads to expedite the implementation of providing all weather roads to the hundreds of villages in Meghalaya.
They urged the MSPB to look into an recommend that there was proper communication between Center, State, District and Block Officials for prompt release of sanction and funds so as to avoid the situation where peoples wages where kept pending for more than three months.
The need for MGNREGA to be flexible in its application in the hilly regions was expressed, the VEC representatives most of whom were Sordars expressed unanimity for the urgent need for State Government to provide Constitutional Recognition and Honorarium to the Village Chiefs who were till date voluntarily devoting their time in the activities of the Village Employment Council.
Others who spoke during the meeting were Dr(Mrs) Eureka Lyngdoh Mawlong, Deputy Chairman, MSPB, Shri. M Tongper, MCS, BDO, Mawshynrut C&RD Block and other officials,
It was suggested that the State Planning Board consider recommendation to the C&RD Department and the State Government for review and conduct of fresh delimitation of the geographical areas of all C&RD Blocks including Mawshynrut C&RD Block, to facilitate time bound release of wages, to address all the communication and infrastructure bottlenecks such as the need for IT services in view of the mandatory requirement for (online) uploading of all estimates, proposals and muste rolls, to allow construction of footbridges as one of the permissible activities to connect agricultural fields and villages which have no proper motorable roads, and to provide for honorarium for the officials of the Village Employment Councils for their services which they have been undertaking on a voluntarily basis since the inception of the MNREGS in 2008-2013, and where such activities required their full time and attention.
After the open session, the Co-Chairman, Meghalaya State Planning Board, Working Group -3, informed them that the State Planning Board will be visiting other C&RD Blocks in the State to conduct similar such interactions to receive first hand information from the VEC. They were also requested to send any other suggestions to further strengthen the delivery systems of the various schemes of the C&RD department in writing through the respective BDO, or directly to the Bah John F Kharshiing, Co-Chairman, (mobile 9436102663 – office-9856022735), on or before February 2014. He stated that the suggestions would enable the Meghalaya State Planning Board to make suitable recommendations to the State Government. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks by the BDO who thanked the Meghalaya State Planning Board which is the policy body for the State Government for conducting such interaction with the stakeholders, and hoped that the views expressed by the participants would be taken up by the MSPB with the C&RD department and the State Government.(SP News)
