The meetings would also discuss the accounts relating to the various projects undertaken by the villages and also about auditing them.
Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin will address at least 10,000 Village Councils (gramasabai) in the State when they meet on Saturday, October 11, to decide on, among other things, removing the derogatory caste names given to hamlets, roads, streets, water resources and public properties, and other subjects indicated by the government.
After speaking to the participants of the village councils, the Chief Minister will directly interact with the members of the public and panchayat leaders from Kovalam panchayat in Chengalpattu district, Mullikulam panchayat of Tenkasi district, Varapatti in Coimbatore district, Kondangi in Villupuram district and Thirumalaisamudram in Thanjavur district.
Additional Chief Secretary for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who is also a media secretary of the State government told the media at the Secretariat on Friday that gramasabai meetings were held at least six times a year for the villagers to know their rights and also to make demands on their needs.
On Saturday, the Chief Minister would address them through video conference, which would also be a testament to the State developing technologically and providing fiber optic cable links to far flung rural pockets and that the internet connections reach up to village resource centres, Bedi said.
TANFINET (Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation Limited) had already claimed that their connections had reached 11,100 village panchayats and that would be proved true on Saturday when the Chief Minister addressed the village councils together through video conference, he said.
Once Stalin concluded his address, the village council would deliberate on the 16 subjects indicated to them and the various welfare schemes, Bedi said, explaining the overall agenda through a powerpoint presentation.
The council would decide on the three ‘top priority’ issues in their village that needed immediate attention and pass a resolution that would be registered in the TNRD (Tamil Nadu Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department) portal by the evening itself, Bedi said, adding that among them would be issues like garbage clearance, roads, streetlights and bus services, on which people could make their demands to the government.
Welfare schemes of the government aimed at poverty alleviation would be discussed at the meeting that would also decide on the beneficiaries at the village level by preparing a priority list, he said. The meeting would also decide on the loans that would be extended to the impoverished families, he said.
Already the government had indicated the subjects to be discussed at the meeting and among them are fighting dengue through controlling mosquitoes, precautions to be taken against the Northeast monsoon, garbage clearance, rainwater harvesting, the various welfare schemes of the Union and State governments like PMAGY, Thayumanavar, Swachh Bharat and so on.
The meetings would also discuss the accounts relating to the various projects undertaken by the villages and also about auditing them.
The proceedings of the meetings in 7515 village panchayats would be recorded and uploaded, as per the advisory of the Union Ministry of Panchayat Raj, on the SabhaSaar site, he said.
