While other Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Ministers are in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, Jayant Patil is trying to make a difference in Maharashtra. Divested of his finance portfolio which went to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Mr. Patil, now Rural Development Minister, has embarked on an ambitious programme of tree plantation and rural sanitation, combined with planned development of villages for the first time.
In a whirlwind tour across the State, he aims to complete nearly 120 public meetings to promote the Eco village programme, which could cost the State Rs. 450 crores. While no fresh doles are being handed out to people, they have to qualify with certain minimum criteria to be eligible for funds under the programme, launched on October 2, 2010. Going by the large turnout at the meetings, the response has been overwhelming, says Mr. Patil.
Extra funds
To qualify under the eco village programme, each village has to achieve the target of “one person one tree,” at least 60 per cent of the families have to build toilets and avoid open defecation, and tax collection should be around 60 per cent. About 14,000 gram panchayats are set to qualify for the eco village programme and funds will be allotted to them for further development, depending on the size of their population. The motivation to qualify is the extra funds.
The formula is simple - “think globally, act locally”. Each person in the village has to plant at least one tree; that was the initial programme that preceded the eco village concept. Mr. Patil's interactive speeches are full of climate change references, humourous appeals to build toilets, and the audience is responsive. In an interview, Mr. Patil told The Hindu that last February he had called a meeting of all the chief executive officers of the zilla parishads before a government resolution was drafted for the ‘one person one tree' programme.
“We had decided to gear up the machinery to make saplings available in a planned way and we also evolved a system of reporting from the gram panchayat level to the deputy secretary. The tree plantation reports were good initially and now in 19,000 gram panchayats (of the total 27,920), it has been highly successful,” he said.
Accordingly, gram panchayats with a population of less than 1000 will be eligible for Rs. two lakhs every year for three years. Those with more than 1000 population will get Rs. three lakh every year for three years and so on. Larger gram panchayats will be entitled from Rs.15 to 30 lakhs over three years.
This money can be spent under 12 heads: to build roads, gutters, waste management or sewerage treatment and disposal systems, street lighting using solar or CFLs, for crematoriums or other community-oriented projects.
There is a system of verification to make sure the villages have qualified and there is a committee of zilla parishad CEOs, panchayat Samiti committees and a State level committee headed by the Minister.
Another dimension
The eco village concept also has another dimension. Villages with more than 5000 people can go in for a development plan on the lines of cities, which will be valid for 20 years. The State Environment Department and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) have short-listed about 20 consultants, NGOs and organisations which will be trained in preparing a uniform template for eco village planning, according to Valsa Nair Singh, Environment Secretary. The department will sponsor plans for 15 villages which should set a road map.
Apt for climate change
Ms. Singh said that the eco village programme is one of the best steps for climate change and touches in a small way on the National Action Plan on Climate Change. Planning will give a good shape for the growth of villages, Mr. Patil said. In addition, all the zilla parishads have been asked to identify the most polluted villages in the district and help them with a plan to clean them up. In the next five years, these most polluted villages will draw up plans for sustainable development.
At Devbhane village which has been adopted by the Swadhyay Parivar movement, there is already a small forest on over 54 acres. Over 10,000 trees have already been planted in the village which has a population of around 2500. It has become eligible for a grant of Rs. 12 lakh over the next three years. Women and men from the 260 blow poverty line families have formed 15 self-help groups to create small businesses.
Malti Desle said the SHGs were a boon for the landless families and in the last few years the village has worked hard to develop itself. “We have piped water and clean toilets. No one paid us for this, we did this out of gram panchayat funds,” she said.
R. B. Nikhumbe, the village development officer, said funds from the gram panchayat were used to plant trees and everyone looked after the saplings. Devbhane is being held up as a shining example with its sanitation, piped water and healthy tax collection. Other villages in Dhule have a hard task to emulate.
Tax collection has also increased and in Dhule district alone figures have gone up by 32 or 35 per cent. Crores of trees have been planted and looked after all over the State and Mr. Patil said it was high time India started thinking of ecological balance.
“Rural people are now involved in environmental regeneration and three years down the line, the tree cover should increase,” he said.
