Government of India has numerous schemes for development of our rural areas and for poverty alleviation.
District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) serves as the nodal agency for managing these various programs at the district levels. A complete definition of DRDA, its roles and structures etc are available at Ministry of Rural Development website. Some of these schemes are: MGNREGA, PMGSY, IAY, Bharat Nirman, SGSY etc. These are conceptually very good schemes and should help transforming the rural landscape of India. More than half of India still live in villages. Unless our rural areas are developed and poverty removed, any slogan of India Shining is meaningless. I strongly believe in the theory and implementation of inclusive growth.
So you can see that DRDAs have a great role to play in India's development. They are the people who can really make India a developed country. It is indeed a great job. They can create history. They can uplift the lives of aam-aadmi, the common men.
But are our DRDAs doing their job honestly? I know one Junior Engineer working in DRDA in Assam who is worth multiples of crores (a US $ millionaire) of rupees. His annual salary would be around Rs 1,50,000/- (about US $3300)! Let us call him Mr T.
Let us look at Mr T from a closer look. He possesses three big houses in the heart of Guwahati city worth more than one crore rupees, all of which he bought by paying cash. He bought some 80 bighas (1 bigha in Assam = 14,400 sq feet) of land near the airport. He also possesses a few bighas of land in Sonapur area in the outskirts of Guwahati. He owns three cars. Recently, he has opened a General Motors car showroom. He also has a rice shop where he sells rice that was intended for daily labourers working in Government jobs!
Mr T is a very junior level official in the DRDA setup. He has engineers, executive engineers, Project Directors, and many other officials, elected representatives on top of him. Again, DRDAs work very closely with Zilla Parishad (District Level Panchayat). Unfortunately, most of them are involved in this great loot. Mr T is just one of them.
What is the source of their money? It is all my money, your money that we pay through various direct and indirect taxes to the government. I am very proud that I am able to contribute some amount to the nation-building. But the bitter truth is that most of our hard-earned money is not going for the development of our country; rather going to the pockets of Mr T and his co-looters.
You cannot complain against Mr T under the current draft of Government Lokpal bill (the Jokepal as it has been called by Anna hazare). He is a junior officer; but important one as he works in the actual implementation of Bharat Nirman.
District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) serves as the nodal agency for managing these various programs at the district levels. A complete definition of DRDA, its roles and structures etc are available at Ministry of Rural Development website. Some of these schemes are: MGNREGA, PMGSY, IAY, Bharat Nirman, SGSY etc. These are conceptually very good schemes and should help transforming the rural landscape of India. More than half of India still live in villages. Unless our rural areas are developed and poverty removed, any slogan of India Shining is meaningless. I strongly believe in the theory and implementation of inclusive growth.
So you can see that DRDAs have a great role to play in India's development. They are the people who can really make India a developed country. It is indeed a great job. They can create history. They can uplift the lives of aam-aadmi, the common men.
But are our DRDAs doing their job honestly? I know one Junior Engineer working in DRDA in Assam who is worth multiples of crores (a US $ millionaire) of rupees. His annual salary would be around Rs 1,50,000/- (about US $3300)! Let us call him Mr T.
Let us look at Mr T from a closer look. He possesses three big houses in the heart of Guwahati city worth more than one crore rupees, all of which he bought by paying cash. He bought some 80 bighas (1 bigha in Assam = 14,400 sq feet) of land near the airport. He also possesses a few bighas of land in Sonapur area in the outskirts of Guwahati. He owns three cars. Recently, he has opened a General Motors car showroom. He also has a rice shop where he sells rice that was intended for daily labourers working in Government jobs!
Mr T is a very junior level official in the DRDA setup. He has engineers, executive engineers, Project Directors, and many other officials, elected representatives on top of him. Again, DRDAs work very closely with Zilla Parishad (District Level Panchayat). Unfortunately, most of them are involved in this great loot. Mr T is just one of them.
What is the source of their money? It is all my money, your money that we pay through various direct and indirect taxes to the government. I am very proud that I am able to contribute some amount to the nation-building. But the bitter truth is that most of our hard-earned money is not going for the development of our country; rather going to the pockets of Mr T and his co-looters.
You cannot complain against Mr T under the current draft of Government Lokpal bill (the Jokepal as it has been called by Anna hazare). He is a junior officer; but important one as he works in the actual implementation of Bharat Nirman.
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