South DPC meeting discusses District Plan for 2012-13

NAMCHI, 09 Mar: A District Planning Committee (DPC) meeting chaired by Adhyaksha, South District Zilla Panchyat, BM Rai was convened at SDZP conference hall on 06 March to approve the Gram Panchayat Unit-wise Shelf of Project/District Plan for financial year 2012-13 under MGNREGA.
The meeting was also attended by District Collector/ South, AK Singh, Zilla Panchayat members who are the members of DPC, officials and staff of SDZP and the Office of ADC(Dev.)
ADC (Dev.), Deepak Pradhan who is also the District Programme Co-ordinator for South District presented a brief report on the MGNREGA trend since its inception in South District. He said that since South District lies in the rain shadow region of Darjeeling Himalayas, most of the areas in South District are drought prone due to which water scarcity is a major problem.
To address the problem of water scarcity, South District initiated water conservation as a pilot project under MGNREGA. As against the total of 11% water related works taken up under MGNREGA in the year 2007, it is now 54% and this % is expected to go further up in the upcoming years, he added.
Further, he informed the house that MGNREGA is a demand driven employment generation programme. Unlike other programme which percolates from top to bottom, MGNREGA follows bottom-up approach in which the ward wise list of works are identified and recommended by Gram Sabha from where it is sent to Block office and finally to District Office. District Office compiles the GPU wise list of works in the form of Shelf of Project that are to be taken up in the upcoming financial year and place it before the DPC for approval.
He also informed the house that Labour Budget for the FY 2012-13 has been prepared to the tune of Rs 32,18,38694 based on the labour demand projection. He presented GPU wise/ Block wise compiled list of works/ Shelf of Project vis-a-vis Labour Budget before the house for approval. During the open discussion session the points raised of the members were cleared.
After thorough examination of the Shelf of Project, the members of DPC unanimously accorded approval to all the proposals that were placed before the house. Zilla Adhyaksha, South District in his address suggested that a close co-ordination between the Gram Panchayat, Zilla Panchayat and the Department Officials is necessary for the success of MGNREGA. He, further, expressed his view that since it is not possible for the BAC staff to carry on micro monitoring of works, training of mates in this regard is essential and could help in addressing the problem to a great extent. The meeting concluded on a positive note for proper execution of works under MGNREGA.