GUNUPUR BDO ABUSED ON HIS OFFICE.

Gunupur BDO, Sri. Gandaram Khamari, OAS, had to face verbal abuse from the Panchayat Samati Chairman and Sarpnch Sagada GP (whose role in misappropriation of 13 lakh of NREGS funds was exposed in a recent inquiry by Gandaram Khamari) for apparently no fault from his side. Sri. Khamari was instrumental in bringing to light the misappropriation of more than Rs. 13 Lakhs in one GP of Sagada alone, a few months back. However, surprisingly, he was immediately transferred from Gunupur. The district administration had not relieved him, firstly because no one was even posted in his place and secondly, since it was the time of the year when chances of cholera epidemic occurring in the district is very high, the Collector Rayagada had decided to retain him till the end of September.

However there was tremendous pressure from local PRI members to relieve him earlier. There were complaints against him, that he is delaying NREGS payments to the job card holders, which were prima facie found not to be true.

Sri. Khamari had worked in the most naxal affected district of Malkangiri and had done a commendable job as BDO Mathili. He holds a reputation of being a no nonsense officer, a quality which more often than not, lands a government servant, particularly field level functionaries like BDOs into problem.
A mob of about 500 people led by Gunupur block chairman and Sagada Sarpanch barged in the office chamber of Sri. Khamari and abused him. They are told to have said that since the district administration had not taken appropriate action against the BDO, they will take the law in their own hands. Along with BDO, other staff of the block office were threatened and intimidated.

What comes as a surprise is that the district administration had made it very clear that Sri. Khamari will be relived on the last working day of September 2011. The whole act of intimidating the BDO was thus highly uncalled for, since for not being relieved, the salary of the BDO was stopped by the government. It is learnt that the only purpose behind this act was to terrorise the block staff into submission and to ensure that the future incumbent is also kept in the same environment.

Such type of incidents generally go unnoticed and the incidents of state civil services officer being humiliated, manhandled or even beaten up doesn't raise any eyebrow in any section of the society. Not even those of messiahs of anti corruption movements or of the organisations who constantly cry out about lack of development. Worst it is taken as a way of life. That is why most of the state service officers do not seem to be keen to be posted as BDOs.

With relief of BDO Gunupur, the total vacancy of BDOs in the district has become 6. The posts of BDOs of Kashipur, Bissamcuttak, Chandrapur, Padampur, Gudari, along with Gunupur have fallen vacant and are manned by either ABDOs or Tahsildars in additional charge. Developmental administration is bound to take serious back being this way !

RASHTRIYA SWASTHYA BIMA YOJANA TO RESTART IN RAYAGADA

After having settled issues with New India Assurance, the Rashtriya Swasthya bima Yojana (RSBY) will be kick started in Rayagada, the first of the few districts in the state to do so. The enrolment process will start soon, which involves, Biometric data capture of BPL families and providing cards to them instantly on the spot. The district administration has geared up its grass root level machinery for this purpose.

MEETING WITH PRI MEMBERS FOR FINALIZING FURTHER COURSE OF ACTION IN BGJY & RGGVY

A meeting is scheduled today with teh PRI members and the officials of SOUTHCO and NHPC ( agency for Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana to decide further course of action in implementation of the two flagship electrification programmes, Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana and Rajiv Gandhi Gramiin Vidyutikaran Yojana of state and central government respectively.


The basic purpose of the meeting was to finalize the list of left out villages and hamlets to be taken up in addition of to the existing scope of 1995 villages in RGGVY and about 500 BGJY. Since there have been complaints from the public representatives about the percieved non inclusion of their concerns in the elctrification program in the district.

There are about 80 villages which had been identified as either not approachable ( NA) or not traceable (NT). The final call on these villages will be taken by district administration and for the opinion of the PRI members and also local functionaries was taken today. Roughly 25 % of the villages, as per the opinion of the public representatives can be taken up as they have been made approachable by the way of formation of road work in schemes like NREGS and Biju KBK.

The collector Rayagada has instructed all BDOs to ensure that each and every panchayat in the district conducts a special meeting to identify its left over villages and send a list certified by the concerned ward members and the sarpanch of a particular GP to the Panchayat Samiti and then after validation by the Panchayat Samiti to the district administration for a final decision in this matter. This entire exercise has to be completed by 15th of October.

REVIEW OF SCHOOLS IN RAYAGADA.

DENGUE CONTROL MEASURE: FOGGING RESTARTED IN RAYAGADA

As a emergency measure to combat the threat of vector borne disease such as Malaria, Dengue and Chikugunia, the district administration had instructed executive Officer Municipality to take necessary sanitation measures such as cleaning of clogged drains, filling places with stagnant water. Along with these measures the district administration had asked the Municipality to restart the fogging activity, which was stopped after the sole Fogging machine donated by IMFA, Therublai went defunct.

The Executive officer Rupa Kishore Dalai wasted no time and within some days low cost fogging machines were arranged. Earlier the municipality had one vehicle mounted machine, but the district administration also insisted on procuring handheld machines, which can also be sent inside narrow laned Bastis and hutments. Accordingly one machine was bought as an emergency measure and fogging started in Rayagada town.

This measure will surely help to some extent in curbing the spread of vector borne diseases. However the sensitization of people towards proper civic practices is the most important aspect of controlling and eradicating such diseases in the future.

MISCREANTS OBSTRUCT PMGSY ROAD INSPECTION OF SUPERINTENDING ENGINEER RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The Superintending Engineer of Rural Works division, Sunabeda, Sri. Husain, was obstructed by some local miscreants in Kashipur from inspecting the road work under PMGSY. The miscreants under the pretext of protest against some local issue were said to be blocking the road, but what was learnt later was that it was a deliberate ploy to not to allow the SE, RWD to inspect the road work, which it was believed to be of a very poor quality. The fact that road in the interior road where the isn't mucj traffic and that all other vehicles were allowed to go raises the suspicion of the involvement of local contractors in this affair.
The quality of PMGSY roads in the interior pockets is very poor and the contractors make a lot of money by executing grossly sub standard works.
Sri. Husain, is known as a no nonsense official and has been very effectively handling the post of EE, RWD Malkangiri division, prior to his promotion to the post of SE, RWD Sunabeda. the miscreants knowing this well, employed this silly tact to not to allow the SE from doing his duty.
meanwhile Sri. Hussein has written to the district administration about the incident and also shared the photographs of the miscreants taken by him from his mobile phone. Collector Rayagada has sent the details with photographs to SP rayagada to inquire in this matter and book the miscreants involved in the act of obstructing the government servant from doing his lawful duty.

AUDIT AGENCIES REMARK WITHOUT VERIFYING AND DEPRIVES HEALTH DEPT OF VEHICLES

In a report to state govt the Audit agencies have without verifying the facts, have concluded a purchase which was never made, as irregular.

The district administration Rayagada had planned to procure two vehicles ( Bolero) for the health dept in the district to serve as MHUs for the naxal affected areas such as Chandrapur and Kashipur, where private vehicles are almost impossible to get. The district administration, in accordance with the guidelines of Planning Commission Govt of India, which clearly permits procurement of MHUs, included the project of procuring two vehicles for the reasons mentioned above. However the state govt, after careful consideration instructed the district administration to not to procure vehicles under IAP and to get the same under NRHM and accordingly the procurement of vehicles was scrapped and no vehicle was procured.

However one fine day, a letter from Planning & Coordination dept was received by the district administration, which asked for an explanation for the objection raised by audit against 'irregular' purchase of vehicles under Integrated Action Plan. The district adminstration immediately clarified that no purchase was made and the hence there is no question of any irregular purchase and most importantly no question of replying to the objection, which was obviously made without verifying the facts.

The comedy apart, the fact that the district administartion could not procure and hence could not provide vehicular support to the health dept teams in the naxal affected areas, which also happen to be the highly diarrhea prone areas, has put the district administration in a very difficult position as its is falling short of people's aspiration. As of now there is no provision for procurement of vehicles under NRHM, which allows only hiring of vehicles. Since there is absolutely no possibility of get vehicles to hire in these areas, the district administration's effort at providing quality health services to the people in the interior part of the district have been effectively made to fail. The district administration has written to the health dept regarding the same and it seem it will have to wait till something fruitful happens in this direction.

DIARHHEA MANAGEMENT: DOWN STREAM CONTROL MEASURES KOLNORA AND BISSAMCUTTACK BLOCK

AREA OF OPERATION: THE TWO STREAMS MARKED WITH BLUE BALL PEN



EXPLAINING THE PLAN OF ACTION


After the recent detection of four diarrhoea cases in two blocks ( 2 in Jhigidi village, Bissamcuttack and 2 in Kumbhaiguda village, Kolnora block) the district administration has started full fledged control measures in these two block in a village cluster and downstream management mode. Collector Rayagada visited the cluster of villages around Kumbhaiguda village and assessed the situation there. Similarly Sub Collector Gunupur, Jayakumar, IAS was sent to the Jhigidi village to conduct similar control exercise.

Downstream control measures involves sanitising the entire stream on whose banks even a single village reports case of epidemic diarrhoea. The process involves disinfection of the stream by the way of chlorination starting from atleast 4 villages upstream and covering the entire length of the stream till its meets the major water body. The places for sanitisation/ chlorination is at the place about 100 meters upstream from a place where the village folk utilises the water. Tube well chlorination have been completed twice, but in such cases as a precautionary measure all the tube wells in this cluster is chlorinated once again. this practice was started last year and was a brain child of Collector Rayagada. This year its efficacy and preventive value will be studied in detail by RMRC scientist and RWSS, by measuring the chlorine concentration at the user point.

STREAM SANITIZATION BY CHLORINATION




For last one week there have been no cases and if the situation is kept under control for another two weeks this season will pass off without any epidemic. Collector Rayagada said that the the district administration is very serious about its objective to prevent any epidemic outbreak and even a single cases is fought with the same seriousness as what would be required to fight a big epidemic.

ALLEGATIONS OF ILLEGAL DETENTION OF CHILDREN BY CHURCH

The district administration of Rayagada was informed by the local media about illegal detention and harassment by a church in Rayagada town. Total 89 children of which a majority were from Sundergarh district of Orissa are reportedly in their custody. Collector Rayagada sent Tahsildar Rayagada to conduct a prima facie inquiry and report for further action. Tahsildar has confirmed that there appears to be something wrong in this whole affair and Collector Rayagada immediately constituted a three member committee comprising of Tahsildar Rayagada, DSWO Rayagada and DLO Rayagada to conduct further inquiry and to take necessary action in this matter. The CWC has also been requested to lodge an FIR in Rayagada Police station against any wrong doing by the church authorities. Meanwhile all the children have been rescued and taken to Adruta orphange.

NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON IAP DISTRICTS IN NEW DELHI

Speaking to media persons after his arrival from Delhi, after attending the National workshop on Appropriate Development Strategies for effective implementation of Rural Development Schemes in IAP disrticts on 13th sep 2011, Collector Rayagada said that the government intends to have a real time assesment of the field situation in these 60 under developed and LWE afftected districts in the country from the field level machinery and devise appropriate policies for development. The honourable minister for Rural Development, Sri. Jairam Ramesh, was very keen about eliciting the feedback from the District Collectors and the ZP CEOs about the exisitng schemes for Rural development and how they can be improved.

Development in naxal affected areas is an intricate process, which requires coordinated efforts from the entire govt machinery including the security forces. This coordination can be seen as the strands of the rope, which when intertwined makes a strong rope that withstands any pressure. In naxal affected areas the development process can be effectively pushed forward by carefully roping in the capacities of different departments with that of the security forces of the state and the centre. The govt of India for this purpose has formed a three member committee, which is chaired by the Collector, and includes the Superintendent of Police and the DFO/DCF and given them funding under the Integrated Action Plan for development of critical gaps in the naxal affected areas. This ''Trimurti model" as it is popularly known now has effectively shown that when the felt needs of the people are addressed in the right earnest and in a timely fashion, it makes a big and good impact on the people and helps check the growth of naxalism and in the long run eradicate it totally.

The Collectors were unanimous about the suggestion that this model be continued for at least couple of years and that if the government trusts and supports its premier services, then the field officers can work out wonders, within a short period of time.

The Home minister and the prime minister also stressed the need for coordinated development in the naxal affected areas. The minister for Rural development also envisaged a bigger role for the Central para military forces in the development process on the lines of what is done in the most naxal afftected areas of Chattisgarh. For the state of Odisha, the DG CRPF was requested by the honourable minister to take up the work of Gurupriya bridge for the cut off area of Malkangiri, which has not been completed for many years now.