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STRENGTHENING
LOCAL SELF GOVERNANCE
Strengthening
of Panchayatiraj Institutions continues to be one of the key
activities for Sahabhagi Vikash Abhiyan. SVA believes that
palli-sabhas and gram-sabhas can play a vital role to
address the fundamental causes of poverty and
underdevelopment in western orissa if they function
effectively. Devolution of power to Panchayats by the 73rd
constitutional amendments entrusted enormous powers to them
to take up developmental activities. Huge development funds
have been chanelised to panchayats through various schemes/programmes
and performances of those programmes have not been
satisfactory due to limited capacity of the representatives
of Panchayatiraj Institutions as a whole. Again lack of
participation of the members of the community in the process
of governance created opportunities for the contractors,
corrupted officials and politicians to siphon out
development funds. In this regard apart from organizing
training programmes SVA also initiated few campaigns to
strengthen the system in four districts (Nuapada, Kalahandi,
Bargarh and Bolangir) of western Orissa.
During
the year 2006-07 SVA organized a total of 159 numbers of
programmes those mainly included trainings, workshops and
awareness programmes. In 170 days of programme a total of
7032 members participated and out of that 4574 are male
members and 2458 are female members. (See Page-3,Table-11 of
Annexure for details)
Ratification
of development plans by Palli Sabhas in 390 Village and
completion of 12 Panchayat plans by Gram Sabhas, formation
of 440 Village Level Institutions (village development,
education, forest, health committees, etc.) in 108 villages
and creation of
a resource pool of 100 village engineers and
100 village specialists to deal with issues on
pisciculture , health and marketing have been some of the
major achievements for SVA.
Due
to the intervention of SVA Mahila Mandals and women SHGs
have been involved in management of PDS in many villages,
village level workers appointed by the government have been
regular in their works and villageers themselves have been
able to monitor various programmes / schemes of the
government . A better and improved management of
community assets have been seen in many villages.
Campaign
on NREGS:
NREGS
has become the main government rural development programme
since February 2005 after enactment of National Rural
Employment Act (NREGA) by the constitution. A huge amount of
funds allocated towards rural development are coming under
NREGS and have been implemented through Gram Panchayats. The
scheme has also a big potential of generating employment and
creating infrastructure if it is implemented properly. There
is likely possibility of siphoning off a large percent of
money because of little awareness of the targets about the
scheme. During the year SVA has taken up a lead role in its
all four operational districts to create awareness among the
people as well as sensitize local officials and politicians.
In state level also SVA is working with other networks
working in the issue.
Campaign
on Right to Information:
Transparency
has become a serious concern in implementation of all the
schemes and programme of the government. Corruption still
remains unabated in our county and the reason being absence
of transparency. In a backward and poor state like orissa,
where general literacy level is significantly low situation
is even worse. To reverse the situation of our state SVA
believed that a concerted effort of all members of civil
society is very much necessary. The earlier campaigns of SVA
i.e. Campaign on Right to Information and Right to Work
clubbed up to start a new campaign named Transparency
campaign. SVA in association with its member organizations
not only organized rallies, demonstrations and sensitization
camps in its area of operation but also participated
actively in the campaign organized by others outside. Impact
of the campaign in the year 2006-07 has been successful and
it will continue the same in more strategic way in future.
Voter's
Awareness:
The last quarter of the year 2006-07 has
been marked by the Panchayat election in Orissa. As a
routine activity of SVA during various elections, this year
also SVA involved in the pre-election campaign. In this
campaign SVA with the support of its member organizations
conducted 46 numbers of sensitization camps where more than
15000 voters participated. To sensitize the voters as well
as candidates contesting in the election few IEC materials
also developed and circulated in several districts of orissa.
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