pri pilot
intervention

Getting Started on PRI interventions: Two day event

A two-day event was planned and organised at Bidar on 24th and 25th May 2005 to inform the Grama Panchayat and the officials concerned at the Taluk and the district about the approval of the PRI Pilot interventions by Government of Karnataka (GoK) with the assistance of SDC/IC – ISPWDK Phase II.

The people present at the meeting were:

• The Director of the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR), GoK.
• The Chief Executive Officer, Zillapanchyat, Bidar District.
• and the PSMU staff (Jangal/ Premkumar, Devanshu Chakravarthi and Ashok Alur).

On the 24th, the CEO, the RDPR Director, and the PSMU team visited Bonthi Gram Panchayat (GP). A meeting was organised by the GP with all the members of Bonthi GP, an elected member of the Zilla Panchayat from Bonthi area and the village communities present. The RDPR Director and the CEO shared the project details and its salient features and the budget amount. The salient features of pilot intervention were that the project would be participatory, democratic, transparent, and contributive with bottom up planning and decision making from the level of Ward Sabha to Grama Sabha and to the Project Steering Committee. It was also emphasised that the GP will directly receive the money for the project implementation and they have to work in a transparent manner with greater accountability. The GP members said that they would keep the party and political issues aside and keep the focus of the Gram Pachayat on village development and NRM.

PSMU views that the first meeting with the GP members and community at Bonthi village gave a positive impression that they will collaborate well in the project. PSMU has not made any announcement, but the Government officials: State and the district levels informed and shared all the details of the project and sought the people’s participation and cooperation, commitment for making the pilot intervention as a successful one to spread the experiences in other GPs.

On the 24th, there was also a brief meeting with the Honorable Minister for Animal Husbandry, GoK, Mr. Nizamudin Patil. The Honorable Minister expressed his happiness that this project was in his own district and he encouraged the District administration to go ahead and make it a successful intervention.

On the second day 25th May, an official meeting was organised by CEO – Bidar together with RDPR Director, officials of different development departments and PSMU staff. The following clarity has emerged. The focus of the project will be as below:

• Capacity building (of all concerned members / officials)
• NRM – CPR development and management
• NRM – PPR development
• Livelihood support and marginalized communities
• Grama Panchayat office support
• Database building, review, evaluation, documentation, and dissemination

With this clarity, the milestone for one quarter was decided as below:

• To form a Project Steering Committee
• Capacity building and training meeting for GP members and others
• Formation of sub-committee at the Grama Panchayat level
• One quarter budget preparation and approval for capacity building activities