Third phase of the Back to Village (B2V) programme is beginning from October 02. According to the administration the programme is aimed at directing development efforts in rural areas through community participation and to create among the villagers a serious desire for decent standard of living. Two rounds of the programme have been concluded in which government officers left their offices for two days to attend to the village needs. Official information reveals that 1607 petty works incurring an expenditure of Rs 165 crore have been taken up so far. It may be mentioned that the erstwhile state has a rural population of 91,08,060 (2011 census) spread over 6,671 villages and distributing this amount means a village shall invite an average investment of Rs 2.47 lakh. However, this petty funding cannot change the socioeconomic dynamics of the villages in Kashmir. The governments, that be, have failed stimulate the rural economy; have not been able to build up agricultural and rural infrastructure and has failed to ensure access to quality inputs, technology and markets to the farmers during past seven decades.
In this back drop, the B2V village is a beautiful concept that has every potential to take the democracy to the grass root level and ensure the participation of the actual stakeholders (villagers) in the process of overall development. That is why when the government here announced first phase of B2V, the initiative was welcomed by one and all. However, the same enthusiasm is not witnesses this time. Reason being that earlier two rounds of the programme have not delivered encouraging results. Most of the people allege that execution of the majority of the identified infrastructure works in the first and second phases has been abysmally low.
To make this people friendly initiative a success, the Lt Governor administration need to have a detailed review of earlier two phases of B2V. The administration need to find out the reasons behind delay in the execution of the works identified during earlier phases. The responsibilities should be fixed so that the third phase of the B2V which is commencing from Saturday ensures that the aims and objectives of this prestigious initiative are met with. The Lt Governor administration needs to understand that what ails the functioning of the government here is the proper follow-up of initiatives. Had there been proper follow up of the earlier two phases of B2V, the things in rural Jammu and Kashmir would have been different today. The administration should ensure that all the earlier identified works are executed quickly and so the ones that would be identified during third phase. Winter is approaching so whatever works are to be done, need to be done on a tremendous phase.
