National colloquium of SIRDs begins with high praise for rural empowerment in Sikkim

GANGTOK, 27 April: Around 100 delegates from across the country are here in the capital for the XXIVth National Colloquium of the State Secretaries [RD&PR] and Heads of the State Institutes of Rural Development [SIRD], which began today here at Denzong Regency.
The three-day long colloquium has been jointly organized by the National Institute of Rural Development [NIRD] and the State Institute of Rural Development, Sikkim.
In his inaugural address, the NIRD Director General, Mathew C Kunnumkal, urged the delegates representing different states to invest active participation in the colloquium to make it a productive meet to draw an action plan for the future.

He lauded Sikkim was a wonderful state blessed with abundant natural resources and appreciated it as a model state doing well in the Panchayati Raj system and in implementation of various rural development programmes.
He stated that the hosting of the colloquium in Sikkim offered an apt to learn from the state as it has been performing well due to good governance.
The Director General mentioned that all the SIRDs in the country have performed well in their respective areas over the last year.
He stressed that the trainings should be relevant to the needs of the area and addresses the local challenges in rural areas.
He further stressed that SIRD should not be confined to trainings, but should also come forward in research and commented that the training methodology should also change as per the needs of the times with innovative methods.
The NIRD Deputy Director General, Dr MV Rao, in turn, mentioned that the main idea behind the colloquium was sharing of experiences of different areas to learn and to know about the successes, lapses and corrective measures.
He stressed that the needs of one state were different from others and that every state has its own specific local issues and that capacity building is very important in this regard. He added that the capacity building was not instant but it is a continuing exercise.
Dr Rao stated that the rural development is a huge task and everyone participation is very much important for the development of the rural area and its people.
Likewise, Joint Secretary [Training], Ministry of Rural Development, Niten Chandra, mentioned that such colloquiums should be made more frequent to discuss rural development and for mutual bonding of different states.
He stressed that training for the rural masses for their capacity enhancement was important for rural development and they should be involved in all the programmes of the ministry and involvement should be public-friendly.
He stressed on the need to strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions and for the same the SIRDs should take a leading role in mobilizing the community and better implementation of the central government programmes in their area.
RMDD Secretary, AK Ganeriwala gave the welcome address in the inaugural function.