'Lab to land' extended to Udupi, Kundapur taluks

The Central government’s programme— Lab to Land, which aims at reviewing the effectiveness of all its flagship schemes for rural development and ensuring their implementation in the rural areas through Bharath Nirman volunteers, has been extended to two more taluks in Udupi district— Udupi and Kundapur .

Abdul Nazeer Sab State Institute of Rural Development (ANSSIRD) is part of the programme which is initiated by the Ministry of Rural Development. Udupi district has been chosen along with Mandya and Davanagere districts, in the second phase of the central government’s information communication programme.

In the first phase, a pilot programme was launched in Harihara taluk of Davangere, Karkala taluk of Udupi district and Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district in 2011. In the first phase, as many as 25,000 volunteers were selected. During 2012-13, the government aims at recruiting 20,000 Bharat Nirman volunteers in Udupi, Mandya, and Davangere districts.

In Udupi district, the target is to identify nearly 6000 to 7000 volunteers.

The Central government was implementing several programmes in the State. The objective was to train the Bharat Nirman volunteers so that they would give information about these programmes.

These volunteers did this work free of cost. The volunteers must be between the age group of 18 and 40 and must be  voluntarily willing to render service without expecting remuneration. Data entries of BNVs are done on Diksha, website of Ministry of Rural Development. 

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Udupi Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Manjunathayya said format and guidelines have been sent to as many as 61 Gram Panchayats, to identify the Bharath Nirman Volunteers in Udupi taluk. “We have asked Gram Panchayats to identify one volunteer each for 40 families. The process is on and we are expecting GPs to come out with the list of volunteers in another 15 to 20 days,” he said.

The EO said that once the volunteers are identified, then they will be trained, on how to act as a catalyst between the government and the rural population They should be the messengers conveying all details of the programmes initiated by the central and state governments, he said.

Training for the volunteers will begin from August 15. The EO said that an account has been opened in State Bank of Mysore for the funds to be accredited by ANSSIRD. “We are expecting the funds to be credited shortly,” he said.

There are as many as 59 Gram Panchayats in Kundapur taluk. An official from Kundapur taluk office said that Gram Panchayats have been asked identify the volunteers.  In Karkala taluk, as many as 1,000 volunteers were identified in the first phase of the programme. One each volunteer was identified for 40 houses.

Karkala taluk has also made a representation in a colloquium held at Lucknow recently. Karkala taluk has already taken up second phase of training the volunteers.