BHUBANESWAR: On the third day of his visit to Ganjam, 5T secretary VK Pandian on Sunday shared his experience of four years as the collector during which the district received four national awards. Pandian spoke about Ganjam’s contribution to creating administrative models that have been appreciated and adopted at the state and national levels. He expressed his gratitude to the people of Ganjam and said all this was possible with their support and hard work.
The 5T secretary said Ganjam was twice awarded the best-performing district under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) at the national level. At a time when wages were paid to MGNREGS workers in cash, Ganjam took the novel initiative by making payments directly to the bank accounts of the labourers to ensure transparency. The initiative was later replicated throughout the country by the central government and made compulsory in MGNREGS payments. This helped remove middlemen and provide wages to workers directly.
Besides, Ganjam was adjudged the best district in the country in 2011 by the President for its rehabilitation measures for persons with disabilities (PwDs). The single window concept and provision of disability certificates for providing assistance to PwDs started in Ganjam, he said.
The 5T secretary said steps taken by the district team led to a drastic reduction in HIV cases in the late 2000s when Ganjam was in the red zone. He said Ganjam was awarded as one of the most successful districts in HIV reduction in India.
He further said during his tenure as Ganjam of the district, an anomaly in the land category was settled which helped lakhs of farmers. “As collector Ganjam, I realised the pain of people due to this anomaly and brought it to the notice of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who immediately brought about the required amendments. Now, most of the Gramkantha Paramboke land has been settled in the name of raiyats across the districts in south Odisha benefiting lakhs of farmers,” he said.
Steps were also taken to provide the best English medium education to bright students of remote areas of the district. Land rights issues of slum dwellers were also first identified in Gopalpur. Efforts were made to provide them with the legal rights to land so as to lead a dignified life. This initiative was later modelled into the Jaga Mission which is a one of its kind land rights project for urban slum dwellers across the state, Pandian added.