MAKING LOCAL GOVERNANCE BETTER

Rajkishore Herna sits at the Farsara Gram Panchayat Resource Center (GPRC) as gas cylinders are being unloaded from the truck. A camp is being conducted at the GPRC where a number of women will receive LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. The women receiving the benefit had been informed and mobilized by the Panchayat Mitra of the Farsara Gram Panchayat Resource Center a month earlier.

Rajkishore had conducted a village level meeting where the Mitra had informed the participants about the government scheme through which the Below Poverty Level (BPL) households are eligible to receive gas connections. Subsequently, the women then visited the GPRC with their documents to complete the application process. In this manner, Rajkishore’s work has been considerably eased since the inception of the GPRC.Earlier, completing the works of the villagers would be problematic as oftentimes Rajkishore would be away from the Panchayat office on some other work and the villagers had to return without getting their work done. With the GPRC now operating within the same premises of the Panchayat, that problem has been solved. The GPRC which is open from 9 to 5 is easily accessible to anybody who’d visit the Panchayat to get their work done.

Rajkishore is thus happy that his panchayat, the biggest in the block with 8 revenue villages, is being served so efficiently by the Gram Panchayat Resource Center.  He hopes that the centre would expand its work to even take up advocacy in those areas beyond his purview.