In a public meeting held recently at Khaira village here, a leader of a political party asked the villagers about their problems. The villagers placed a long list, starting from ration card, houses, pension, input subsidy to RI charging bribe for issue of certificates etc. However, Nilakantha Majhi (55) of the village interrupting in the middle shouted for a diversion weir in a stream for irrigation to 300 acres of land.
“‘If possible on your part, please construct a diversion weir across the stream Pilakachra Nala, and one crop will be assured from more than 300 acres of land,”’ he said and soon, was supported by other villagers.
Whenever a meeting is held in a village, the people, who summon the meeting, whether they are Government officials, NGOs or even political parties, place their own agenda and motivate people to do accordingly. Gram Sabhas turn in to forum that accepts the decisions and directions. Thus, people’s demand like that of Nilakantha does not get reflected in the plans or programmes.
Several programmes like Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana (GGY), Biju KBK and even MGNREGS provide ample opportunities to develop irrigation infrastructure in rural areas. It is mandatory under programmes like GGY and BKBK to spend at least one third of total budget in water projects and the first and final authority to take decision in this matter is the Gram Sabha. But, actually the process is turned around.
The people in Gram Sabhas are asked to put their signatures in blank pages of the registers and the resolutions and the list of activities are written latter. Thus the activities suggested by the vocal and powerful people get the nod.
“‘I have mentioned about the diversion weir several times in Gram Sabha, but that never found a place in the resolutions,”’ says Nilakantha.
The planning of Gopandhu Gramin Yojana (GGY) done before the last Panchayat poll had allotted less than 2 per cent for water project, where as about 90 per cent of the fund was allotted for roads, guard walls and culverts. “‘Whatever projects approved under the GGY was a list of activities prepared by leaders of ruling party. They got that approved in the Gram Sabhas. There was a clear instruction from the State to distribute work orders before the election to persons suggested by the district leaders of BJD,”’ says a district level Government official.
It is learnt that, the district authority was so much under pressure that, it supplied another list unofficially to the BDOs mentioning the names of local BJD leaders against the name of the projects allotted to them. “‘We have to manage other political parties, so we also allotted works to leaders of other parties including the MlAs and ZP members, although a major share went to ruling party members,”’ added the official. The BDOs allotted work orders to the Vlls according to the direction of those leaders. It does not need mentioning that, such monitoring from above helps the party leaders to gain in terms of money and votes,”’ say the officials. It also helps the corrupt officials to take their own share, they add.
Nuapada district is water starved, because the rain water is not tapped properly. Irrigation coverage is less than 20 per cent of the cultivated area. Underground water has high fluoride level, which requires recharge of ground water through development of surface water bodies. But, the plans and proposals for development always give importance to concrete roads and guard walls. The political parties never take notice of the suggestions made by villagers for improvement of water related projects, which has great potential to bring dramatic change in the agricultural practices and productions.
Nilakantha says that he has two acres of land in the upper ridge of the village, which gives him 750 kg of paddy per year. “‘Yield will be doubled not only for me but for the whole village,”’ he says.