In a major move to bring more transparency in the Panchayat & Rural Development (P&RD) Department, as many as 4 lakh bogus job-card holders have been identified through field level survey and such allotments have also been cancelled by the department.
Senior officials of the P&RD Department informed this to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal during a review meeting held in the Chief Minister’s Conference Room at Janata Bhawan here on Thursday.
Moreover, for the new methods of payment adopted by the department, fund disbursals to job-card holders have also been expedited, senior officials of P&RD Department also told the CM.
In the meeting, the CM was also informed that during the current fiscal year 87,299 SHGs have been formed as against 20,762 SHGs during 2016-17 and steps for their training have been initiated and till January this year 68,827 SHGs have been provided training.
Besides, under the Deen Dayal Gram Kaushal Vikas Yojana, 19 new trades have also been introduced in the centres run under the scheme in the State aiming at opening more job opportunities for the unemployed youth of the rural areas.
The Amar Gaon Amar Achoni (AGAA) scheme was also discussed during the review meeting.
The departmental officers informed the CM that altogether 68 lakh schemes have been approved under the scheme for implementation in the villages.
Progress of implementation of other rural development schemes such as IAY, PMAY, MGNREGA, old age pension, widow pension, pension for the differently-abled etc. were also discussed in the meeting.
Chief Minister Sonowal, while chairing the meeting, directed the P&RD Department to ensure quality and error-free implementation of all the P&RD schemes to transform the rural areas of the State.
To promote tourism at village level, Sonowal emphasised on maintaining proper cleanliness in the villages and asked the department to take strong measures from grass root level.
Sonowal also stressed inclusion of college or university teachers and local opinion leaders in the village meetings under AGAA apart from the departmental officials. The CM also directed the department to institute State level award for best performing villages in terms of implementation of schemes maintaining high quality.
P&RD Minister Naba Kumar Doley, Chief Minister’s Legal Adviser Santanu Bharali, Additional Chief Secretary P&RD MGVK Bhanu, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Sanjay Lohia, Commissioner P&RD JB Ekka and host of other departmental officials were present in the meeting.
