The district is witnessing an extensive review of all the welfare programmes with spot verification at the field level. The year 2017 witnessed successful completion of Chaiti, an important cultural extravaganza and a people’s festival of the district.
The district administration under the aegis of the District Culture Agency (DCA) and the able leadership of District Collector-cum-Chairperson, DCA Guha Poonam Tapas Kumar could showcase the enriched culture and heritage of Rayagada along with sale and exhibition of rural handicrafts in a Pallishree Mela in association with Rayagada units of ORMAS and OlM. Going a step ahead, Guha could limit the ever increasing expenditure with transparent spending mechanisms in spite of demonetisation.
The top-notch officials of the district headed by the Collector decentralised the grievance redressal mechanisms to the block levels on rotational basis thereby coming closer to the people at ground zero. These grievance redressal meets were followed up with reality checks in a few villages randomly selected. This made the entire block administration alert and active with rectified measures.
For example, the Collector visited a nondescript tribal village named Jugapadara in the most interior Chandrapur block where there was a smell of corruption in Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and interacted with the beneficiaries directly and appreciated their efforts in investing beyond the sanctioned amount both in case of materials and labour. The strict monitoring of IAY and Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana(BPGY) could see 93.31per cent houses completed during 2015-16. This also brought laurels for the district when Guha received Rs 1 crore from CM Naveen Patnaik as Rayagada district became number one in housing programme.
She also spent hours with the tribal girls students and staff in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Chandrapur block and recommended a slew of measures for further improvement. Chandrapur is known to be infested with Maoist activism. Spending the whole day in the block has exploded the myth that there is a fear psychosis among the Government officers due to the presence of the Maoists. She along with the top bureaucrats of the districts barged into a hamlet to listen to the angst of the women regarding paucity of drinking water. Instruction was issued then there with follow-up action.
The horrible communication system in Chandrapur was recently supervised by Guha personally during a surprise visit to the block. “We will take the grievance redressal process to the GP and even to the GP level after it is strengthened at block level,” said Guha.
Much before CM Patnaik declared the 3-Ts, Guha made it possible. The team under her leadership has been active in redressing several issues at grassroots, especially education, health, agriculture, labour, drinking water, housing, sanitation, etc. She is very much tech-savvy and always online in Whatsapp and responds to each query even late at night.
Rayagada district has a blog and recent opened Facebook and twitter accounts. As a token sign of transparency, the statistics of grievance redressal meetings is swiftly shared to scribes using a group SMS. The district portal’s who’s who is updated regularly and tenders, advertisements and results are regularly posted.
The district has been awarded 1st position in housing. Nine girls belonging to Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) Dangaria tribe from SSD schools created history for the first time by passing matriculation and opting for higher studies. There have seen least migration and gastroenteritis deaths. The deaths due to hunger is zero. Certainly these are bold steps towards transformation. “As a people’s Collector, Guha has responded to the call of conscience without waiting for instructions and adhered to minimum quality standards in implementing welfare measures,” said Rayagada Nagarika Manch convenor Ajay Rath.