Chief minister Naveen Patnaik with chief secretary Bijay Patnaik (right) and minister Surjya Narayan Patro at the collectors’ conference in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 6: Ahead of panchayat elections, the Orissa government today issued a Gaon Chalo (go to villages) call asking all district collectors to go to villages and address problems of the common man. The district collectors have also been asked to tour rural areas at least six days a month covering a minimum of 30 villages.

Details of the government’s plan to focus on Orissa’s rural areas were explained to the collectors by revenue minister Surjya Narayan Patro in the presence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik on the inaugural day of the two-day district collectors’ conference at the secretariat.

Though the panchayat elections are scheduled to be held in the first quarter of next year, political parties have already begun their preparations. The ruling party, BJD, is apparently seeking to make a headstart over others in the run up to poll preparations.

Patro said: “Collectors should not only sit in the office. If they start visiting the villages, it would have a big impact on the field-level officials. Issues such as, construction of pucca roads, providing safe drinking water and electricity, would be immediately addressed if the collectors start visiting villages regularly.”

The district superintendents of police were not part of the conference for the first time. “In this conference, the Orissa government wants to focus solely on development work. The police superintendents have no role to play here. That’s why they have not been invited here,” said a senior government official.

On the first day of the conference, issues such as implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Forest Rights Act, construction of hostels for the tribal students, crop condition, drought, flood, distribution of land to landless people, land settlement, drinking water supply to schools and anganwadi centres, rural drinking water supply and sanitation, were taken up for discussion.

Inaugurating the conference, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said: “I would like all the collectors to be innovative and use location-specific techniques to generate demand for works under the rural job act. Collectors should ensure that work is available in every village of the state under the rural job act.”

The district collectors were asked to make efforts to ensure coverage of maximum number of households under the rural job scheme with special focus on migration-prone pockets. The collectors were also advised to provide all households covered under the Forest Rights Act with benefits up to Rs 50,000 in the form of land development, digging up of farm ponds, or horticulture plantation in their lands.

It has also been decided to take up forest plantation in 40,000 hectares and horticulture plantation in 25,000 hectares in each district.

Asking the collectors not to bow down before the demands of local politicians, Naveen said: “Don’t be scared to do good work and the work will be appreciated.”

The chief minister also pointed out how district collectors of Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri and Gajapati have sset good example of covering eligible workers under the Forest Rights Act.