3 min readBurdwanMar 9, 2015 01:39 PM IST
First published on: Mar 9, 2015 at 11:43 AM IST
In a novel way to reach out to the villagers , the administration in Burdwan district in West Bengal has started a programme called ‘Night Stay’. This programme would include time to time visit of District Magistrate along with the top administrative officials to a randomly picked village to study the impact of various government welfare measures on the villagers.
The team, comprising officials like ADMs, SDOs and BDOs, discusses with the villagers their problems and needs.
The meeting usually starts at around 7 pm and continues till around 11 pm, depending upon the nature of the interaction.
“All the officers, including myself, BDOs, SDOs, ADMs,and other senior officers, select a remote village where on a spot all important district and block level government functionaries and people congregate,” Burdwan District Magistrate Saumitra Mohan said.
Meetings are held in the evening because by that time most villagers are back from work and are in a relaxed mood,the officers and people’s representatives sit on the floor face to face with the villagers,Mohan added.
“We respond to their problems and try to resolve most of them there itself. Those entailing a substantial financial commitment are noted down to be taken up later with higher authorities,” the DM said.
The problems dealt with are mostly relating to cast certificates, issue of ration cards, inclusion of names in the BPL list, social assistance programmes like old age, widow and disability pensions.
Construction of roads, libraries and other facilities, scholarships, electric connection, ICDS or Mid day meal programmes, health services, land-related problems, agriculture issues, cattle and domestic animals related problems also feature among the topics.
A good number of problems are resolved on the spot to befollowed by a special camp for the people of the gram panchayat for extension and facilitation of sundry services and government benefits.
“We all carry our own tiffins and dinner packets to such meetings. After taking a round of the village, we stay back and sleep in such places as schools or community halls made ready for our night halt,” the DM said.
The DM said that they had already held around 500 such meetings across the district. Mohan pointed out that the night interactions were in addition to regular daytime monitoring meetings and field visits.
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