Bangladesh delegation visits Nadia to take pointers from three-tier Panchayat system

An 18-member team comprising senior officials from Bangladesh on Thursday visited Nadia district to study the three-tier Panchayat system.

The team has come to Bengal on a three-day visit. They interacted with the gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad members. On Friday, the team will meet Subrata Mukherjee, minister for Panchayat and Rural development and other senior officials of the department.

The Bangladesh team is led by Md Yahya bhuiyan, joint secretary, local government division.

The biggest achievement of Panchayat and Rural Development department is the vetiver grass cultivation to prevent soil erosion. The project has been renamed as Subujayan by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. There are six rivers flowing through the district. They are Churni, Mathabhanga, Padma, Bhagirathi, Jalangi and Icchamati.

Vetiver grass is planted along the river bank covering a distance of 734 km; of the total area, plantation work has been completed along 120 km. Senior officials of the state government said by March 31, plantation along 500 km will be completed.

Soil erosion in Nadia has been a major problem. After coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee asked the officials of Panchayat and Rural development department to chalk out measures to prevent soil erosion.

A pilot project was taken up. Vetiver grass was brought from Tamil Nadu. Over the years, 76 nurseries have come up in the district where the grass is grown.

Vetiver experts from both the country and abroad have visited the nurseries and appreciated the work taken up by the state government. They had interacted with the officials and the growers and gave necessary suggestions to improve cultivation.

Nadia is the country’s first district that has been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF) district by the Centre. The Panchayat and Rural development has chalked out an elaborate plan to make all the districts in Bengal ODF by March 2019. 

Vegetables from Nadia are being exported to Europe. Already two consignments have been sent in December in 2016.