Smart will not be an adjective solely dominated by cities as the State Government is moving ahead to make smart villages, with help from technology. To achieve this goal, State Rural Development Department and State Institute of Rural Development started a two-day National Convention on Smart Villages, where experts from across the nation gathered with their suggestions and views on this matter.
“Technology can bridge the gap between rural and urban sectors in terms of development, by providing better amenities and communication facilities. The progress in sericulture and fishery with the help of technology needs to be imitated in other fields too,” stated Rural Development Principal Secretary NN Sinha.
“The concept of smart villages will be founded on principles of better health, sanitation and education facilities. Under this initiative, the economic conditions of the villagers will also be strengthened. All the villages of the state will have electricity by 2018, with civic amenities and infrastructure similar to urban areas,” said CM Raghubar Das during the inaugural session of the conference.
In the upcoming Panchayat elections, a unanimously elected female contestant will be awarded with cash incentives of two lakh rupees, he further announced.
Rural Development Minister Neelkanth Munda said, “Funds to the tune of five to six thousand crores have been provisioned in the budget for developing 500 smart villages across the state. But this only the beginning, we expect the Central government to lend a helping hand in this regard.”
“The needs should be provided for before they even arise, that is what smart city or village means. The idea is to motivate villagers for creating a smart village,” stated NIFM Director Harsh Kumar.
His presentation focussed on how technology can be used for making public distribution system more efficient. He suggested that smart biometric devices should be installed at points of purchase and sale and vehicles and godowns should be monitored with GPS systems, all this to ensure that subsidies are dispensed smartly and without irregularities.
“Panchayat system needs to be strengthened first for better villages. Authority needs to be decentralised to Panchayats for better service delivery, managing resources, administrative principle of substantiality and reduced costs. But the problem is that Panchayats are not planning like they should for this,” said Ajit Kumar Singh, during his presentation, Good local Governance by Gram Panchayats.
“Villagers should be aware of government projects; they should become smart villagers first. Then, public representatives in Panchayats should be made smarter. This will pave the way for smart villages. The smart village initiative should be implemented with the help of Panchayats. Then only can transparency and efficiency be ensured in the entire process,” said Katkamdag Mukhiya Priyanka Kumari, talking to those gathered during the conference.