A team of nine officials from the Department of Cooperation and Poverty Elimination of the Government of Nepal, which has arrived in India for eight days to study the poverty alleviation and rural development programmes, visited Mandya district on Friday.
The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (NIRD-PR) of Hyderabad, which has been studying the factors contributing to rural development through its Centre for Wage Employment and Poverty Alleviation (CWEPA), has organised the visit.
Led by Chintan Poudel, executive vice-chairman of Poor Household Support Coordination Board (PHSCB) in Nepal, the team members visited Kyathaghatta in Maddur and Aralukuppe, near Pandavapura, and interacted with gram panchayat members and residents of villages.
The team visited two anganwadi centres, inspected the toilets constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) at Kyathaghatta, and collected details related to public participation in the implementation of various schemes at Aralukuppe.
The team members collected information on the features and success rate of several programmes, including SBM, multi-village drinking water scheme, Sakala services, children’s gram sabha, women gram sabha, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, housing schemes such as the Basava, Indira Awas, Ambedkar etc., National Rural Livelihood Mission, watershed scheme, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, sanitation and other rural development programmes.
Impressed by the success of government-sponsored schemes for the uplift of the poor and the downtrodden, Mr. Poudel said, the team would submit a report to the departments and agencies concerned in his country about their observation.
Mr. Poudel told the people in different villages that starting from April, the team had been undergoing an orientation programme at NIRD-PR.
Women at Kyathaghatta offered juice prepared with jaggery to the team members.
Apart from Mr. Poudel, the team consists of the following members: Director of Statistics Dhundi Raj Lamichhane, Under Secretary Ramesh Prasad Pudasaini, Surendra Prasad Pandey, Guru Prasad Marasini, Bala Krishna Thapa, Sanat Kumar Neupane, Bhim Bahadur Shakha and M.C. Radha.
Assistant professor C. Dheeraja and senior resource person S.V. Rangacharlu of (CWEPA) Mandya Zilla Panchayat Deputy Secretary (Development) Gopal, Executive Officer of Maddur Taluk Panchayat Amarnath, Kyathaghatta gram panchayat president D.D. Asha, vice-president K. Marijayamma, Panchayat Development Officer M.R. Ashwini and others were present.
Earthquake
Meanwhile, the team was shocked to hear the news of a severe earthquake in Nepal on Saturday and the members were anxious to know about their family members back home. They were trying to contact their friends and relatives over mobile phone to know about their safety.
