Tribal district’s gram panchayats get e-connectivity

Vadodara: For the last 10 years, Varsan Rathwa, who lives in a remote village of Chhota Udepur where even mobile connectivity is an issue, had been running from pillar to post for the assessment of his land in forest, but his efforts did not yield any results.
Last week, just one video call through Zoom with the district collector, while sitting in his village’s gram panchayat office, ended Rathwa’s woes forever.
Rathwa has been promised assessment by the district administration and within a few days, he will also receive all official papers at his gram panchayat’s office through email.
In a region where people have to climb hillocks to just make a phone call or have to wade through waters of ravines and forests to reach to a nearby motorable road, the new initiative of the district administration has come as a big boon for the people like Rathwa, who live in the villages on the borders of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The district administration, in the first such initiative of Gujarat, has brought all gram panchayats on the digital map so that citizens do not have to stretch till district or taluka headquarters.
“All gram panchayats have laptops and broadband connection, so we have asked them to create their separate email addresses. Whatever issues or problems citizens will have, it will be reported to us through email from gram panchayats and their problems will be resolved accordingly,” said district collector Stuti Charan.
All necessary papers and documents will also be sent in the digital format. “We have created a back-end process for this so that maximum work is done without papers for the convenience of people,” said Charan. Once the issues are resolved, the documents or certificates will also be sent to the applicants on WhatsApp or through email at gram panchayat.
The monthly ‘Swagat’ program of all districts where collectors hear issues of people directly will also be held through Zoom. “Citizens can either connect through their phone from their homes or from the gram panchayat office,” Charan told TOI.
“It is difficult to travel all the way till Chhota Udepur as our village is not properly connected and we also have to spend a lot of money. But this way, our work is done very comfortably,” Rathwa said.