Panchayat and Rural Development dept organises workshop on convergence

The Panchayat and Rural Development department organised a day-long workshop on convergence at the Joint Administrative Building on February 6.

The workshop was chaired by the chief secretary Basudeb Bandopadhyay. It was attended by the additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries of different departments having convergence with Mahatma Gandhi NREGA. There was a detailed presentation by the Commissioner, MGNREGA on the status of Convergence with different departments, inputs received from the departments for the draft Convergence Plan and the expectations from the converging partners.

The workshop was the fall out of the successful organisation of the Rajya Panchayat Sammelan on February 3-4.

Departmental Secretaries actively participated in the deliberations and gave valuable inputs to extend the canvas of convergence. It was also decided that this kind of sessions would be organised on a quarterly basis and in June, next such convergence Workshop would be organised.

It was also decided that for the State Convergence Plan for 2017-18, the departments would revisit their proposals in the light of deliberations on Tuesday and resubmit their inputs for incorporation in the final Convergence Action Plan to be placed before the Chief Secretary for approval and sharing with the Government of India.

There was a special segment of the workshop dedicated to Mission Water Conservation, a special initiative in Irrigation deficient Purulia district, critical block of Goghat-II of Purulia district and the comment areas of Kangsabati, Mayurakshi, Teesta and DVC Barrages for effective Natural Resource Management initiatives.

Mission Water Conservation is an initiative where effective convergence is sought for between the programmes of the Ministry of Rural Development (MGNREGA), the department of Land Reforms (IWMP which is coordinated by the Department of Agriculture in Bengal) and the Minister of Agriculture (PMKSY). The additional district Magistrate, Purulia presented the Water Conservation Plan of Purulia district by following the watershed approach.