Government of Bihar receives a public grievance

Chief Secretary, Public Grievances Cell, Government of Bihar

Thank You!
Your application has successfully forwarded to Public Grievance Cell for further processing. It is being forwarded to the concern department for necessary action within four weeks from today.
Your Grievance Number is: CSPGC/BIH/00176. Note it down for future reference.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To,
The Chief Secretary,
Public Grievances Cell,
Government of Bihar,
Cabinet Secretariate Department, Old Secretariat,
Patna - 8000015
Tele/Fax No. : +91 612-2215409



Subject: Village Chakauti in Sitamarhi District - Dark Corner of India

Dear Sir,

While we are all busy building India and its image, there are a few dark corners long neglected. I have been visiting my home Village Chakauti in Bokhra Block (earlier in Nanpur Block) in Sitamarhi district,Bihar, where the villagers had deposited their initial money for electic connection years back to the Electric Supply Division Sitamarhi in 2001-2002. However, no action was ever taken on the ground to electrify the village.


2. The plight of the village, lack of proper education, agricultural backwardness, complete lack of infrastructure, not to talk of any industrialisation, unemployment among its youth and the sheer helplessness of all the villagers is directly attributed to the non electrification of the Village. While all the villages around Chakauti are electrified, the Village Chakauti is the lone one in the area groping in the dark, facing huge number of problems due to non electrification.

3. Earlier, on July 4, 2007, after my visit to the village I had written letters to Secretary(Power), Government of India and received the following reply from Ministry of Power:

" GOI has launched Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana for electrification of un-electrfied villages, intensive electrification of electrified villages and to provide free connections to BPL families. A project under the scheme has been sanctioned for the district Sitamarhi also. Chakauti village was not included under the project by the state for electrification as it was declared as electrifed earlier However, during detailed survey during implementation of the sanctioned project, it was found that the village has got de-electrified.

A supplementary project has been prepared to cover the village.The RGGVY was for X Plan only. The proposal for continuation of the Scheme for XI Plan is under consideration of the Govt. The supplementary project will be sanctioned after approval of the scheme. "

4. I find that two years have gone by since then. No sign of any action is seen in the village despite anouncements from Hon'ble Prime Minister of India such as

"My vision of rural India is of a modern agrarian, industrial and services economy co-existing side by side, where people can live in well equipped villages---.Rural incomes have to be increased. Rural infrastructure has to be improved. Rural education and health needs have to be met. Employment opportunities have to be created in Rural India."and

from Dy. Chairman of Planning Commission : "One of the critical constraints which holds back our growth is the lack of infrastructure"

5. The villagers of Chakauti have high hopes of action from the Government of Bihar. Could you kindly look into it?


Best Regards.

Yours sincerely,
(A Villager)
July 17, 2009

Rural Housing

Govt. plans to construct 120 lakh houses in the next five years under the Indira Awas Yojana.

Rural Roads

Govt. plans to build an additional 45,000 km of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in the next five years.

Rural Employment

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is being expanded to include small and marginal farmers. Under the scheme, in addition to creation of assets such as reservoirs and dams, Govt. will take up projects to develop water resources, agriculture, environment and forests, fisheries, dairy farming and carpentry. Govt. has made a budget provision of Rs 39,080 crore for National Rural Employment Project.

Rural India to get Broadband

Rural India is all set to take a giant infotech leap forward.

The government has drawn out a grand scheme to put nearly 5 lakh villages across the country on the high-speed wireless broadband map in the next five years. The initial phase would cover about two lakh villages in 5,000 blocks. In January, the government placed an order with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) under the USO fund scheme for providing 8.5 lakh rural broadband connections. "Under this scheme BSNL gets a subsidy of up to 40 per cent on computers," said a BSNL official, who did not wish to be quoted. This is besides the subsidy it gets on installing and maintaining the broadband connections. The government would continue this subsidy for wireless broadband.

Villages in blocks and talukas that already have necessary infrastructure such as tower and power would be identified for rolling out the network. There are two lakh such villages. Bids would be invited from telecom service providers, and the successful ones would be given financial subsidy.

The subsidy will be provided from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) that is raised through a 5 per cent levy imposed on telecom operators' revenues. It is meant for supporting telecom services in rural areas. At present, USOF has a corpus of Rs 18,192 crore.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) has decided that primarily WiMAX technology would be used for wireless broadband connections. WiMAX enables broadband access at a download speed of up to 75 Mbps through wireless.

DoT has already awarded a contract to BSNL under USO fund scheme to install 7,800 towers in rural areas for providing broadband connections through WiMAX. "My priority is to provide world class telecom services to the masses across the country at competitive and affordable prices. We will accomplish universal coverage of both voice and broadband connectivity," said union communications minister A Raja. But what about the cost? The government plans to subsidise even computer hardware for both individual subscribers as well as rural information technology kiosks.

In recent months, the government has held discussions with telecom operators, Internet service providers, and others to formalise modalities of tender procedures, technology selection, and benchmark settings, the official said . "The kiosks shall have at least one Internet browsing enabled work station, a printer and a scanner," an official, who did not wish to be identified, said.
Among other things, the broadband network would connect all panchayats or elected council of village elders, across the country. This is aimed at dovetailing panchayats with the larger national e-governance initiative.

Out of about 2.5 lakh panchayats across the country, only 30,000 have been provided with broadband connectivity, so far. For villages without power, the official said, the government favours financial subsidy to telecom providers for setting up solar, wind or diesel hybrid solutions to run broadband networks.

Rural electrification to curb population growth

Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad pleaded for rapid electrification of villages in India to accelerate curb the population growth of the country by ensuring access to television.

"Electricity in our villages can help control population growth. Electricity will lead to television in houses, which will lead to population control. When there is no light, people get engaged in the process of population growth," he said while addressing a function on World Population Day. "Don't think that I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It's a great medium to tackle the problem," he added. "When light will reach (villages), 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV," he said, adding that the current United Progressive Alliance (UPA) central government is working to ensure greater rural electrification.

The minister said that population growth needs to be controlled as it will have positive impact on "all Indians". "It is the duty of all MPs, ministries and of all individuals to help in curbing the population growth," he said adding that India contributes to 17 per cent of the global population but the land area of our country is just 2.5 per cent of the total land available in the world. India with over a billion people is second only to China in terms of sheer number of people and experts believe if the current trend of growth continues, then the country may surpass China by 2030.

Budget - a Clear Shift for Rural Development

http://www.rural.nic.in/gramin_bharat.htm