Govt. deploys 800 IAS officers for village outreach

Govt. deploys 800 IAS officers for village outreach

News:

1. Recently, the government has deployed 800 IAS officers in 115 ‘aspirational districts’ to implement flagship government schemes

Important Facts:

2. 800 Deputy Secretaries, Under-Secretaries and Director level officers from various Ministries have been sent to 115 districts to implement various government schemes under the Extended Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (EGSA) before the Independence Day
3. Each IAS officer has been assigned 75 villages. A total of 49,178 villages will be covered. Most of these villages have a majority of SC/ST population
4. Central officials are being absorbed into EGSA duty for at least 15 working days
5. In each village, a team of officers convenes meeting of beneficiaries, district or state officials, representative of a leading bank in the area, and agencies responsible for enrolling people in the village
6. The team monitors the functioning of the scheme and gets feedback. In case of any loophole it tries to sort it on the spot.
7. The team also uploads the day’s progress into a data system that can be tracked live on the EGSA dashboard

8. Concerns raised:

• There have been concerns raised over such a widespread involvement of Central officers in implementing government welfare schemes. This might have an impact on Centre-State relations and undermine the principle of cooperative federalism

9. Additional Information:

• The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan seeks to effectively implement welfare schemes to select villages which need particular attention. The objective of the campaign is to promote social harmony, spread awareness about pro-poor initiatives of government, and reach out to poor households to enrol them as also to obtain their feedback on various welfare programmes.
• Initially the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan comprised seven schemes:

1. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
2. Saubhagya
3. Ujala scheme
4. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
5. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana
6. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and
7. Mission Indradhanush.

• Recently, five new initiatives have been added. These will concentrate on improving schools, health services and nutrition and launching agricultural projects and a skill development programme. Further, the number of villages targeted has also been increased