TS Govt to improve basic amenities in villages

Hyderabad: The Panchayat Raj Department has taken up a special drive in all Gram Panchayats to improve basic amenities in villages. An action plan will be chalked basing on the feedback on the special drive. 

A senior official in the department said the government may consider giving special funds to the GPs to implement the action plan. Data on the amenities available would be collected by the Special Officers during the special drive. Basing on the date, the government would take the drive forward, the official said.

Issuing instructions in this regard, commissioner of Panchayat Raj Neethu Kumar Prasad said the Chief Minister had instructed the officials to take up a month-long intensive drive in all the villages to improve governance and civil amenities.

The task to conduct special drive has been entrusted to the District Collectors. She has instructed the Special Officer and Panchayat Secretaries to offer 'Shrama Danam' once in a week and take certain steps for a visible change in the villages after the end of the drive like sweeping of all roads daily, transportation of waste to the dumping yard, door-to-door collection of waste, de-silting and cleaning of drains every alternate day, filling up of defunct and unused wells and low lying areas, removal of debris, prevention of stagnation of rain water, checking of mosquito growth, and observation of dry day.  

Apart from this, they should take up cleaning of all the public institutions like schools, Anganwadi centres, hospitals, markets, assess the quantity of waste generated in the village and plan the size of the dumping yard accordingly, establishing crematoria (Vaikuntha Dham), chlorination of drinking water sources, plugging of leakages in pipelines and construction of toilets in the government schools. 

A District Panchayat Raj officer said as part of the special drive officials should ensure that all the 12,751 Gram Panchayats have a nursery. Site for the nursery shall be identified, if not done already. 

He said that in order to plan the development of the villages the special officers should prepare details of the roads, like length, width and category (CC, Metal, gravel) and their status along with number of culverts available and needed. Details of drains like length, width and whether it is CC drain or kachcha drain and further requirement for proper disposal.

They should collect the data of number of street lights and inform whether all are functioning or not.  They should collect the data of number of Gram Panchayat staff category-wise. They must ensure that each house gets tap connection under Mission Bhagirtha.

The officer said that main objective of the special drive was to maintain cleanliness in the villages. He said that the village staff has been told to achieve open defecation free targets.