Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha while taking performance appraisal of Back to Village-3 (B2V), Lt Governor has announced the “My Town My Pride” (MTMP) initiative for the municipalities. Officials said that the initiative for Urban Local Bodies will be like Back to Village for providing doorstep delivery of different government services and to identify structural issues firsthand. The aim of the initiative is to empower the public and ensure on spot redressal of their issues/grievances. It was informed that the two-day long flagship program for ULBs will be held in all Municipalities of the UT except Srinagar and Jammu from 19th – 20th October, during which camps of public service delivery would be set up. The officials have been asked to assess the ground situation of the allotted ULB vis-à-vis perception of the local public, data provided by the different departments, inputs shared by the ULB/prominent citizens and share their own observations.
The steps announced are appreciable but there always remain some riders as for as implementation is concerned. The Lt Governor has already directed all DCs to compile a report of all the works completed after the Back to Village 1 & 2 and the works initiated during Back to Village-3, and submit it at the earliest. He stressed that the works undertaken should be as per the decisions of the people of the Panchayats and administration should be there at every step to act as a facilitator in the process of development. While one has to appreciate the directions, it may be mentioned here that the government has not been sharing the relevant data with the populace. Need is to have a complete transparent mechanism wherein the respective District Development Commissioners should come out with complete data indicating the findings during the three B2V phases and also making people aware about the progress made on the implementation front.
Reaching out to the people at grass root level, listening to their issues and grievances and identifying the areas to be developed is praiseworthy. But what can make the change happen is the implementation part. The officers may submit their reports to the highest authorities but the real judges, who know what they had asked for and what has been delivered, are the common people. They are the ones who should be kept in the loop. The Lt Governor has announced that that the key elements of Jan Abhiyan and Back to Village will continue to be implemented in a cohesive manner across the districts of Jammu Kashmir saying it is just the beginning and with Jan Bhageedari, the government would transform the villages and provide basic amenities at the people’s doorstep. This is possible only if there is proper monitoring mechanism to see whether the issued flagged of during these phases of B2V are being addressed in a proper manner or not.
