Villagers not aware of govt development programmes, Somnath

Ilam Bazar, West Bengal, Sep 18 (UNI) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today underscored the need for a vigorous campaign in rural India for making people aware of the government-sponsored welfare measures.

" It is regrettable that most of the people living in rural India do not have any information about any government welfare measure, and as a result they continue to remain in dark and in abject poverty, " the Lok Sabha Speaker said while inaugurating a function organised on the occasion of Public Information Campaign (PIC) or Bharat Nirman Navodaya Utsav at Ramnagar near here.

Stating that "information makes a man confident and only confident people could make the nation great", Mr Chatterjee said the Centre, State Governments and Panchayats must work in tandem and make greater effort to make people aware of their rights and privileges of different projects.

" If people do not know about the welfare schemes, the very purpose of their formulation would fail, " Mr Chatterjee opined.

Referring to National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREG), he said this act was a bold step towards alleviating rural poverty and the people should come forward to take advantages of this.

Among others, Dr Shib Ranjan Mishra, Head of the Department of Economics, Viswa Bharati, spoke on the occasion and dwelt on the benefits of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meal Programme, Right to Information Act.

UNI ABA SJC AB 2011