 "Village development campaign from April 14")
The campaign, to be run jointly by the Union ministries of rural development and panchayati raj, agriculture, social justice, labour and information & broadcasting, along with states. On the final day, April 24, Modi will address villagers near Jamshedpur. However, the poll-bound states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, as also Puducherry, will be excluded.
On the first three days of the campaign, the government says discussions will be held on social harmony and justice across all villages. The next four days will have discussions and programmes on how to strengthen farmers by increasing their incomes. In this phase, scientists and government officials will go to villages and discuss in this regard with farmers. The Centre has asked officials to note suggestions by farmers on design of policies.
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“During the last four days, there will be discussion on how the panchayati raj system can be strengthened. During these days, gram panchayats will discuss their one-year or five-year development programmes,” minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore told reporters. In the agriculture ministry , an additional secretary-rank officer will coordinate with other ministries and departments. Participants in the 250,000-odd gram panchayats are to be informed about the various government schemes on agriculture and rural development.
And, officials from the 600-odd Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Agricultural Technology Management Agencies are to interact with farmers through the panchayats to spread information. Print, television and radio would be used extensively in this regard.