Rurbanization - the game changer...

Gujarat Series -3

Gujarat – where Villages and Cities grow together..


A decade after he took over as Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi remains the most polarising political figure of our times. No Indian politician has earned as much admiration and derision as him. Modi is lauded for his development credo, for turning Gujarat into an investment magnet, for making it easy to do business in the state.

Agriculture in Gujarat has grown more than 9% in the past five years, the highest in India.

Every village in Gujarat is self-sufficient in drinking water thanks to taking the waters of the Narmada River to every nook and corner of the state. Gujarat is the No. 1 in providing jobs. The most retold accomplishment, if it can be called that, is investments worth Rs 39.6 lakh crore promised in the five Vibrant Gujarat summits, Modi's showpiece meeting of global investors.

Narendra Modi’s philosophy is straight and simple: When faced with a problem – think out of the box. He has cut red tape, he has almost ended corruption and made it easy to do business.

On a sweltering afternoon in mid June, the Sachivalya, the headquarters of the state government in Gandhinagar, was buzzing with activity. Bureaucrats were busy signing and disposing off files and shouting orders to their juniors. Soon after, a steady stream of officers walked briskly towards their cars. Some jostled for space in packed elevators, where visitors followed them to the way out. It was only 4 pm.

To an outsider who had heard stories of the super efficiency of Gujarat's administration, this sight of officials leaving office during working hours would come as a surprise. But for people familiar with the Narendra Modi’s style of functioning , this was routine.

The bureaucrats, including senior officers in the rank of principal secretaries, were off to rural areas to monitor the Kanya Kelavani and Shala Pravesh Mahotsav, the government's massive drive to enroll children in schools. In the next three days, they would visit 34,000 schools in 18,000 villages. They have been at it for the past 10 years. The results are striking. Under Modi, the dropout levels in primary education that was as high 41% (see Dropout Rate...) has fallen to under 8%. That is a significant achievement for a society that places entrepreneurship on a higher pedestal than education.

During my recent visit to Gujarat, I was acquainted with the government’s philosophy of ‘Aatma gaav ki, Suvidha sheher ki’- meaning keeping the rural character of our villages alive while invigorating them with facilities associated with world class cities. Combining innovation with efficient execution, the Gujarat Government is working towards turning this vision into a golden reality.

As Gujarat is celebrating a decade of peace, unity, stability and brotherhood it is appropriate we show case one aspect of Gujarat’s development. Otherwise known for vibrant cities, the Gujarat government has given tremendous importance to the development of its villages.

The Government started from this area that needs maximum attention. Otherwise known for unity and clan solidarity, villages turn into virtual battlefields during times of elections. This is an all-India phenomenon and the situation is worse during Panchayat more than Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha elections. People who till then walked shoulder to shoulder become sworn enemies as relations often get strained.

The Gujarat government ended this by introducing the Samras Gram Yojana. The initiative was aimed at strengthening a culture of consensus and collective decision-making. Samras Grams are those villages that select their Panchayats unanimously through consensus.

For doing so, the villages are rewarded- a Samras Gram is awarded Rs. 1,50,000 and those Samras Grams with women Panchayats are awarded Rs. 3,00,000. Gujarat has a total of 8044 Samras Grams and 40 of them are women-governed Panchayats.

The Samras Gram Yojana has made representatives not only more responsible but also more humble and sensitive towards the grievances of the people. This has paved way for an approach of consensus and collective decision-making where everybody is an equal stakeholder.

After political consensus the Government tackled the menace of crime and social disturbances in the villages. Through the Paavan Gram and Tirth Gram Yojanas, the Government sought to strengthen the atmosphere of goodwill and social harmony among the villages of Gujarat.

A village that is crime free for 5 preceding years classifies as a Tirth Gram while a village that is crime free for 3 years is designated as a Paavan Gram. A Tirth Gram gets an award of Rs. 1,00,000 and a Paavan Gram is awarded Rs. 50,000. Today Gujarat has 867 Tirth Grams and 206 Paavan Grams.

How villages can become centres of development rising above petty politics is something one must learn from Gujarat. There are 11,000 Nirmal Villages in Gujarat due to excellent standards of hygiene and sanitation. Lakhs of women in the state have joined Sakhi Mandals through which they manage financial activities worth more than Rs.1, 000 crore.

During my visit I also had the opportunity to meet various persons who were building these institutions across Gujarat. Their mission was clear- to make villages self sufficient and free from any disturbances. Realizing that the process would be incomplete without providing facilities associated with the cities, the Government took equal care to ensure that they get it.

First and foremost was providing of adequate supplies of electricity to the villages. The Gujarat Government’s Jyoti Gram Yojana made a path breaking contribution in providing 24 hours, 3-phase power supply to our villages. Electricity in Gujarat is no longer restricted to urban areas only.

18,000 villages of Gujarat hosted the annual Krishi Mahotsavs that have deeply enriched the lives of our farmers. The State Government has also completed the construction of 6.5 lakh check dams, farm ponds and bori-bandhs for water conservation.

A village cannot call itself developed if it lacks access to the latest technology. Though cutting edge technology reached the cities first, the Gujarat Government is making rapid advances in taking technology to the villages.

A major role was played by the e-Gram Yojana due to which the villages enjoyed continued broadband connectivity. The advantage of this can be seen in multiple fields. It has made grievance redressal much simpler and has brought the people very close to their Chief Minister, Minsters and other Government functionaries. At the same time, these villages require a balanced environment where work and leisure go side by side. With the Panchvati Yojana, parks and gardens were constructed so that leisure can complement a hard day of work.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave the nation the concept of ‘Rurban’- the rural spirit with world-class ‘urban’ facilities. It is heartening to see the state work overtime to achieve this..

Gujarat Series 4

Swachch Gujarat – Nirmal Gujarat

At the risk of sounding too eulogistic, it should be conceded that the State of Gujarat

has a very distinctive methodology for bringing focus on burning issues.  Every year

is celebrated in the State as a theme year. This is the initiative of Narendra Modi.

The success of the “theme year” celebrations lies in the tremendous detailing of

every aspect of the execution, i.e., from planning the strategy, to implementation,

role defining, to regular tracking and monitoring by the concerned department/s and

reporting up to the highest levels.

Recognizing the urgent need to address the issues related to cleanliness and

sustainability aspects of environment, the state government declared “Clean Gujarat”

or “Nirmal Gujarat” (in local parlance) as the theme for the year – 2007-2008.  And,

to show how serious the Government was in ensuring success in the area, a SPV

(Special Purpose Vehicle) was created with the sole purpose of strategizing,

facilitating the implementation of the strategies for cleaning and close monitoring of

the performance. 

This SPV is called the “Nirmal Gujarat Mission (NGM).

“Nirmal Gujarat” is about managing waste related with industries, transportation,

hospitals, sanitation, solid waste disposal and tourism. It is also protecting water

bodies, trees, green spaces and heritage buildings. It envisages capacity building in

the management of waste generated in airports and railway stations, fairs and

temples, office building, hospitals, roadside eateries, public toilets, streets,

community halls, schools, land fill sites, vegetable markets and parking spaces.

It is also about monitoring short and long term plans, goals and targets, penalties,

evaluation criteria and competitions.

It is an attempt on a complete behavioural change through communication on

environmental consciousness, awareness, capacity building, participation, best

practices and guidelines. It involves senior citizens, NGOs, institutions, communities,

business groups, student groups and women's groups.

Nirmal Gujarat is also about implementing strategies, innovations, recycling and

cleaner-greener technologies, rules and regulations, incentives, administrative

charges, and special campaigns. It is an ecofriendly way of living and a completed

behavioural change to a green way.

The main objective of Nirmal Gujarat, was to generate consciousness among the

customers and users, regarding the garbage [human, industrial, domestic as well as

animal feces] harming the environment.

When the Mission embarked upon the task of delineating scope of the Nirmal Gujarat

work, it appeared never-ending and an illustrative list was initially readied.

The strategy included:

  Management of waste- related to solid waste disposal, sanitation, hospitals,

industries, biomedical waste, transportation, and landfill sites, etc.

 Regulate everyday waste- generated in marketplaces, Fairs, temples, railway

stations, homes, airports, hotels, motels, schools, shopping malls, farmyards,

cattle waste, etc.

 Protect– Heritage buildings’, soil, greenery, biodiversity, water bodies, etc.

 Build capacities and generate awareness of– environment, best practices,

law, health and hygiene issues, etc.

 Involve– Senior citizens, women’s groups, students, institutions, NGO’s,

Media, government departments, employees, etc.

 Implement through –championing innovations, practices that have worked,

recycling, adoption of cleaner technologies (carbon trading), incentives in

terms of cash awards, levy administrative charges, issue consonant

guidelines by departments, etc.

 Special focus is on peoples’ participation and setting up sustainable

systems. The Sanitation of slums and tourist sites also figures prominently in

the priorities.

The scope of Nirmal Gujarat operations slowly unfolded to a convergence of all

cleanliness, environmental and public health activities in twenty five departments of

the government.

Tremendous details on every aspect of the execution have gone into making the

Nirmal Gujarat, from strategic planning, defining the roles of twenty five different

departments, setting a three year normative goals, implementing, systematizing,

monitoring and reporting to the highest levels.

Nirmal Gujarat is unique and holistic by way of its innovation in converging

intersectoral activities of cleanliness, environmental and public health issues and

covering its activities in the urban, rural and tribal areas under one umbrella.

The aid programmes by citizens include seminars on the subject by Sakhi

Mandals[women group], senior citizens, students, school and other non govt.

organizations.

Under the aegis of Nirmal Gujarat, an ARC [Awareness and Responsibility

Commission] has been incorporated. The motive of this mission, is to inspire people

to lead unsoiled and healthy life.

The Mission co-ordinator co-ordinates 25 state departments, non-govt.

organizations, groups and citizens..

Various departments of the Gujarat Govt. have incurred different schemes under the

Nirmal Gujarat yojana.

1. Urban Devlopment:

a. Collection of 100% garbage from residence, in 35 municipalities.

b. 96 vermi-composting units active,

c. Gujarat, the pioneering state to do understanding with World Bank, regarding

Carbon Trading.

d. By December 2007, land filling to be conducted in scientific manner.

e. In the municipal offices, for environment betterment, 3,61,860 kg. junk disposed

off.

2. Road and Buildings:

a. Removal of unauthorized structures spread over 1004 km.

b. Removal of unauthorized junk, from the main State highways and district

highways.

c. Removal of garbage from 425 terraces, along side of the highways.

3. Child and Women Welfare:

a. Health food and child care, to receive primary attention.

b. In rural area, conducting healthy baby competition.

4. Water supply:

a. 9000 villages trained for water detection.

b. 4800 villages supplied with Cloroscope, for water detection.

c. Detection of water quality for 6000 villages.

5. Forest and Environment:

a. Controlling pollution, Garbage re-cycling plants and Surat’s unsafe garbage re-

cycling plants and its keep-up.

b. With the aid from the industrial houses, tree plantation on road sides was started.

Under the Veeranjali Forest programme, in August 2007, alone about 1,85,70,000

trees were planted around the state.

c. The usage of plastic, below 20 microns was banned.

6. Health:

The hospital and health related residues were intensively cleaned.

7. Panchayat and Rural:

a. About 1.2 million public toilets were built, by 2010.

b. About 12,689 [94.94% of the total estimation] villages were put on chlorination and

a permanent plan was executed for the same.

Clean village, healthy village scheme

A new scheme has been introduced in 2007-08 to ensure that village is properly

cleaned, there may arise good spirit on cleanliness, level of cleaning as well as level

of rural life may go high. Consequently financial assistance is given for neatness

and cleanliness, which can be used for preservation of cleanliness and to purchase

sanitation implements. Inspired by this, the gram panchayat is encouraged to keep

his village neat and clean.

Under ‘Nirmal Gujarat’ every village is given certain targets:

 

 Gram panchayat should spray medicines regularly, in dirty place, public

gutter lines and roads.

 Dung-hills should be shifted to proper places and the place should be

decide outside the village,

 Scavenging tax should be introduced in gram panchayat and village

sanitation arrangement should be intensified.

 Toilets should be constructed in the local self governments, schools,

panchayat ghar, anganwadi, primary health centers etc.

 Slogans/posters of ‘Nirmal gujarat’ should be pasted ate public places in the

village.

 Arrangement for individual and community toilets should be made.

 Total sanitation campaign should be organized in village areas.

 Maintenance of animals should be ensured at a proper distance from

residential places.

 State govt. shall allocate the amount equal to collection of scavenging tax by

the village as incentive grant and the eligible village shall get it at 110%.

Thus, The Nirmal Gujarat, yojna has truly brought “nirmal” [peaceful] atmosphere in

Gujarat and has realized the dream cherished by Mahatma Gandhi, about making

the cleanliness, the motto among people.

Gandhiji believed that “Cleanliness is Godliness” and today, under the able

leadership of Shri Narendra Modi, the citizens of the state has not only progressed

economically and industrially, but their living standards have considerably risen

due to an innovative and inspiring leader.

- Dayanand Nene