Working experience with Rural Development Programs:
I was associated with Rural Development during my postings as
a) CEO (Chief Executive Officer ) of Aurangabad and Sangli Zilla Parishad ����� 4/81 to 1/84
b) Collector of Sangli � 2/84 to 5/85
c) M.D. of WMDC � covering 9 districts - 6/85 to 8/88
d) Director YASHADA � 10/89 to 9/90
e) Divisional Commissioner Nashik, covering 5 districts of Nashik, Nagar, Dhule Nandurbar and Jalgaon� where I was controlling officer for CEO and Collectors - 6/94 to 11/95
f) Settlement Commissioner, Maharashtra, 12/95 to 7/97.
Rural Development�
programs have 4 major aspects.
1] Sectoral Development : Implementing schemes of different departments at village, taluka and district level, such as education, health, agriculture, animal husbandry, minor irrigation, roads, nutrition, anganwadis, etc.
As CEO this was my main job, to be done in consultation with the elected representatives ie, Sarpanch, Taluka Sabhapati and Zilla President, under Maharashtra Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti Act of 1960.
I took opportunity to study the Acts and the Structure in other states also and feel that good aspects of these Acts in different states can be combined together.
The Zilla Parishads had their own budget of nearly 40 crores. (Sangli is the richest Zilla Parishad in Maharashtra), plus a budget of nearly 150 crores from Govt of Maharashtra plus nearly 300 crores from Govt of India.
As CEO and Collector, I was preparing the Yearly Plan Document of the district.
Later as Divisional Commissioner, I was the Vice Chairman -cum -sanctioning authority for the distrrict plans.
2] Integrated Rural Development : This concept was introduced by Govt of India in 1981 It includes programs� like, IRDP. TRYSEM, DPAP, JRY etc to be implemented through the agency of DRDA, whose chief is CEO in Maharashtra.���
These programs provide for individual upliftment with training under TRYSEM and loans from banks under IRDP. My districts were always at top in achieving these targets. There is also provision for group development, or creating community assets such as developing an egg collection� route� or� constructing a milk chilling plant or a lift irrigation scheme.
I was also chairman of District� Loan Coordinating Committee of bankers to oversee proper and sufficient loaning under IRDP.
As CEO and Collector of Sangli, I used IRDP for Economic Rehabilitation of� 150 Devdasis. This experience can be used for a large number of nomadic tribes, marginalized villagers etc.
Separately, as collector and commissioner I have also implemented the Employment Guarantee Scheme meant for group employment to unskilled workers. This is useful as poverty alleviation especially during drought.
In WMDC, which was a small scale Industrial Development
Corporation, I took forward the Devdasi Rehabilitation Project by providing
entrepreneurial inputs and extended these concepts for tiny sector cottage and
village industries, especially silk, gobar gas, ferro cement, etc.
My dessertation entitled �The
Integrated Rural Development Programme for Women in Developing Countries : What
more can be done? (A case study from India)"� was included as a chapter in the book �Women Development and
Survival in the third World" edited by Haleh Afshar - Longman Publication
U.K. (1989).
Recently it has come out as a book titled �Devdasi� in Hindi, written for rural adult population.
3] Watershed Developments and Drinking Water Management.
This used to be my major job as CEO, Collector and Commissioner becauas most of my districts were highly drought prone and faced Drinking Water Scarcity. We undertook lot of� mini watershed development programs, which supplemented the minor irrigation programs of zilla� parishads. As Commissioner I did an elaborate mapping of catchment zones and undertook catchment development programs., such as soil coservation, afforestation, water harvesting etc.
4] Land Records : As settlement Commissioner of Maharashtra, I was in charge of all Land Records, its Computerization,� Surveys, Modernization, GIS, Consolidation. We were in close collaboration with Surveyor General of India and MRSAC for Sattelite based Data Collection.
Training : All these concepts were used as training material in YASHADA which is the State Institute for Rural Development (SIRD) where I was for 1 year. Here we also examined or built some alternative development models.
Women�s perspective : Finally during my posting with National Commission for Women,� I� re- examined all the rural development schemes from the perspective of women�s participation in these programs.
In his 15th August speech, the Hon. Prime Minister has mentioned that Sampoorna Gramin Vikas and creating more employment avenues for rural men and women will be the thrust areas. Hence I feel that my experience with these programs will be of help in policy formulation, implementation� and monitoring.