Kohima, December 9 (MExN): Rural Development Department Officers' Conference 2017 was held at the Conference Hall, RD Directorate, Kohima on December 7. The conference was marked by release of two booklets namely ‘Detail List of VDBs (1980-81 to 2016-17)’ and ‘Detail List of VDB Fixed Deposit & VDB Welfare Fund.’
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary RD, Kelei Zeliang stressed on the importance of uplifting the economic livelihood of the village people and invited all PDs and BDOs to come up with innovative schemes depending on the feasibility under their respective blocks.
He also urged the officers to make frequent visits to villages, listen to their needs, and ensure that each village under their respective blocks are benefitting from the schemes being implemented.
Maintaining that Nagas have developed a culture of begging, he further called on the officers to make it a point to educate the people to be productive. “Change the mindset... change culture of begging into culture of giving and somewhere in between there will be culture of working,” he said.
Zeliang also impressed upon the BDOs to be prepared for the Central Ministry team visit in the first week of January 2018 and directed all officers to be stationed in their respective places of postings compulsorily.
Expressing his happiness at the release of the booklets, he further urged upon all the officers to thoroughly read the book and improve their understanding of the department and its activities.
Director, RD, Metsubo Jamir suggested that the BDOs take up fewer but bigger schemes per village and implement them well and make it meaningful so that they can leave a good legacy behind from serving as BDOs. He also advised making use of the booklets to identify the performing and non-performing VDBs in their block.
Jamir also requested the Secretary and the government to review the number of blocks as having 74 blocks and being in this state of affairs do not make sense. He suggested that these 74 blocks, which is created by way of generating employment opportunities by some vested interests, should be reduced to 40-50 blocks and let the villages perform, which he opined, will be a very good start to streamlining the RD Department.
He mentioned that little bit of streamlining are being proposed by way of cutting down non-performing honorarium staffs and retaining performing staffs followed by streamlining of the BDOs.
The RD director also inaugurated the Nagaland Rural Development Service Association (NRDSA) office chamber and Multi-Utility Hall at RD Directorate.
Earlier, consultative meetings were also held separately with BDOs, Engineers and Account Officers.
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