Even though the Government has PDS for all BPl families, in Khaira panchayat of Nuapada district, there were huge irregularities. Around 50 per cent card holders were not getting rice in time, due to negligence of officials. However, now that problem is over, courtesy Khaira Sarpanch Jarmani Majhi’s sincere efforts.When the tribal woman became sarpanch in 2012, her focus was to regularize PDS and include other beneficiaries in the scheme. “When I became sarpanch, the first demand raised in both Pallisabha and Gramsabha was regularizing of PDS and the right beneficiaries should get rice through PDS. Some of the villagers even alleged though they had not received rice for last three months, but their cards were signed by the officials,” said Jarmani who then decided to start a drive against PDS corruption in her panchayat.
After getting regular complaints from villagers, a resolution was passed in a Panchayat meeting to verify the number of right beneficiaries, left-outs and irregularities. “We did a survey in Panchayat level and surprisingly found there were huge irregularities in PDS. The question raised was where the huge quantity of rice was going. We gheraoed the office of the Block Development Officer and he assured the rice will be given to right beneficiaries within 15 days. later, rice was recovered from the supply inspector’s possession,” said the sarpanch with confidence.
But the major problem came when she found a van was coming every month to their village and distributing rice to the beneficiaries of PDS. The villagers found they were getting lesser than the exact quantity written in the card. When complaints were lodged, she cancelled the van service and now the PDS distribution work has been taken up by the Panchayat itself and all the beneficiaries are distributed rice through the panchayat office.
“We have marked one day for one village to distribute PDS items smoothly and the last day of the month is for all the left-outs who couldn’t reach the panchayat office on their appointed day. So that everyone can get their share of rice provided by the Government to them through PDS,” said Jarmani. When she was elected as sarpanch in 2012 there were only 836 BPl beneficiaries in her panchayat who were entitled to get PDS rice. Now around 461 other beneficiaries of her panchayat were included in other schemes of the State Government.
Apart from this, her panchayat was also reeling under drinking water scarcity. Water in major part of Nuapada district is contaminated with fluoride contents and her panchayat under Boden block comes under this threat. So the womenfolk have to walk long distance to carry safe drinking water for their families. After setting up of tube wells in her panchayat, she took up the matter with the Government officials.
later with the support of some technical people, RO filtering system through solar energy was attached in the tube well. “At present while 5 tube wells have been attached with this RO (reverse osmosis) filtering system, other tube wells will be fitted soon with this system in coming years with an aim to provide purified water to all the villagers of the panchayat,” said Jarmani.
Electricity was a distance dream for the BPl house holders of her panchayat. It was thanks to her effort that today all the BPl families have electricity facility in their houses through Biju Jyoti Yojana. She has also worked to include beneficiaries into social security schemes.
Talking about implementation of various Government schemes, especially PDS in Khaira Panchayat of Boden block, Dr Ajit Panda, Director Ayauskam, a non-profit organization working in Nuapada district said, “Every year around 70-80 per cent people of the district migrate to other States in search of jobs. Food insecurity and lack jobs in their areas are major causes to push them for migration. Besides, huge amount of money given by middle men attract them.” He suggested that if we can provide them food security and jobs through various Government schemes in their particular area, we can minimise the number.
Assistant Block Development Officer (ABDO) Boden block, Simadri Patra said, “Decentralised planning is always welcome and if we want to see the development in grassroots, we need to give power to the Panchayatiraj institutions. But among the elected women sarpanches, the major problem is their educational background. We want that women sarpanches should come forward but because they are less educated they are lacking in understanding the planning and budgeting of various Government schemes. So they are mostly ruled by the male members of their families or work as proxy sarpanch, which is not good for the development of a panchayat.” Patra added that a woman sarpanch should be minimum a matriculate.In Jarmani’s case, we have never seen her husband or other male members of her family interfering, he said.