Integrated village development in new perspective

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA
 

Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa opening the plaque at the inauguration of the project

Though the entire world moves towards building skyscrapers and dream of mega cities, countries like ours need to think twice whether these ultra modern concepts will positively fit in with our natural landscape. We, Sri Lankans seem to enjoy ourselves more the peaceful idyllic setting than the messy urban culture. Deeply rooted in our culture we are a community of people who are more comfortable with the village concept.

More than 80 per cent of our population are rural. Sri Lanka has more semi-urban and rural areas than a few cities such as Colombo, Kandy, Jaffna, Galle and a few other townships. During the past sixty years of the post independent era, Sri Lanka's development priorities did not properly address the needs of villagers. Under the vision of President Mahinda Rajapaksa development programs have begun to focus more on the village in order to make the rural sector economically more viable and resourceful.

Under the umbrella of 'Gama Neguma' various programs and projects are conducted to uplift the lives of the village community. Of these, the Inter Village Development brings a new perspective for sustainable development. As an initial project, under the direct supervision of Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa M.P., the Ministry of Nation Building launched the Inter Village Development Program at Passara, Siyambalanduwa and Angunukolapelessa. Under this project the Akiriya bridge and 10 kilometres of road will be constructed as an acess to Meegahakiwula. It has been estimated that nearly 3500 families of Pitamaruwa, Roberiya, Madolsima, Metigahatenna, Meegolla and Morabela will be benefited under this new development blueprint. The Government has released 19 million rupees to the Passara Pradeshiya Sabha to carry out the construction work.

According to Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa as stated over the media last week, altogether 36,000 villages will be able to reap the benefits under the 'Gama Neguma' Inter Village Development program.

"At the outset, we have selected four pilot areas - i.e. Siyambalanduwa, Passara, Angunukolapelessa and Kuruwita," wherein 225 villages are included for development Additional Project Director S. A. Nagahananda said.

"So far we have been focusing on developing isolated villages and this very much leads to development in education, transport, communication, information technology and almost all basic infrastructure facilities as well," Nagahananda added. Interconnecting villages can solve many problems which individual villages face due to its geographical and economic differences. When interconnected, villages are benefited by overcoming its weaknesses. Access roads, water supply schemes and power supply lines could be more effectively utilised in such cluster villages.

This project is conducted and coordinated by a special project office functioning under the Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development headed by Dr. Gamini Batuwitage. The first project under this new concept was to build the road to Meegahakiwula from Akiriya through Morahela which runs across a jungle area. "Most of the people living in these villages depend on chena cultivation and their main crop is maize," Nagahananda added. "The cultivation of land carried out in an unorganized manner. The farmers have a problem in transporting the harvest due to the lack of an access road.

With the new access road, the traders have the facility to come to the village to buy the harvest rather than the farmers going in search of a market! As a result, the 'farm gate price' of the harvest tends to become favourable to the farmer," he said. As Nagahananda explained the 'Gama Neguma' Inter Village Development program is a Community Driven Development program or better known among professionals as CDD. In countries like ours where ample manpower can be found, development programs should lay more emphasis on community participation.

People should in fact, seriously involved themselves in developing their own villages.

Hence, People's companies are established comprising representatives from each village. "It is compulsory to have 50 per cent women participation," Nagahananda added.

These companies are registered with the Registrar of Companies as a public company and are expected to the follow necessary ethics, norms and principles. Two villagers should represent each village and one person must necessarily be a woman. "These people should take decisions in prioritizing their development activities with majority siding with them", Nagahananda explained.

These companies run a Village Savings Credit Organization (VISCO) - which provides micro finance facilities to this cluster of villages.

In addition, the Government has provided each Pradeshiya Sabha with 200 million rupees for the development activities plus and additional 10 million rupees for capacity building of the Pradeshiya Sabha.

A sub committee established with 70 per cent people's participation and 30 per cent from elected political members is expected to oversee and manage the fund transactions and banking facilities.

Women’s participation a must	The inaugural meeting at Passara last week

"Though the people can decide on deadlines to finish development work according to their plans we have instructed the committee that works should be finalized within three years. It has no space to drag on work unnecessarily," Nagahananda cautioned. Post construction maintenance is done by a special zonal committee comprising villagers and they are responsible for repairing and reconstructing damaged roads, culverts and such other infrastructure facilities.

If the damage is beyond their capacity they must inform the Pradeshiya Sabhas or the relevant Government Officers for further assistance.Progress of the work is assessed by an independent appraisal team of Officers of the project as well as from other institutes, Project officers, Samurdhi Officers and Grama Niladharis and the assessments are done from the grass roots level to the top. "The projects are designed to tap the local resources and ensure community participation as much as possible. The unity of the village is important in making development successful," Nagahananda added.