Kalam to media: highlight village development programmes

India
Kalam to media: highlight village development programmes
By Indo Asian News Service, Nov 20, 2006 - 11:12:52 PM

New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS) Social development programmes initiated in villages across the country that generate employment and improve the lives of people should be projected by media to enable 'faster realisation of empowerment of rural masses', said President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Monday.

Addressing the Summit of the Powerless organised by Tehelka newsweekly, Kalam urged the media to take stock of all developmental programmes taking place in different parts of the country under the initiatives of the central and state governments, district authorities, NGOs, industrial groups and educational institutions.

Inaugurating the two-day summit, Kalam pointed out that in India - where 700 million people live in 600,000 villages under 200,000 panchayats or village councils - the national ambience is 'a scene of sweat'.

Narrating his own experience of the Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) programme, he said: 'These typical social development programmes should be projected by the media to different parts of the country which will enable sharing of knowledge between the states and districts and promote early spread of the message to different parts of the nation.

'Once the thought of development is ignited, it will spread like wildfire and enable faster realisation of empowerment of the rural masses. This is how the media can become a partner in national development and become the media of a billion people,' the president said.

Pointing out that the political parties and the media give more importance to the 'political politics', Kalam said: 'The nation's important need is development politics. Hence, it is essential to concentrate on the key developments and progress at the grass root level.'

He said the media had to create awareness among the elected representatives of the panchayats or village councils about the schemes available from the central and state governments, their rights, roles and responsibilities.

According to him, the first and foremost priority to take place in our country to empower the people is 'employment generation coupled with skill oriented education and training, at least for additional 40 million people.'

The president narrated how the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI) has successfully implemented a village development programme in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh, and Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Thanjavur, in Tamil Nadu's initiate in transport, electronic and tele-connectivity helped the villages to improve health sector and generated employment under the PURA programme.

With examples drawn from his experience in villages in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Assam, Uttaranchal and Punjab, the president emphasised that the establishment of PURA complexes, provision of important connectivities such as physical connectivity, electronic connectivity and knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity, and provision of infrastructure facilities like electric power in remote areas helped villages improve living conditions.

'Media's interest in PURA will indeed lead to rural development and thereby economic development of the nation,' he president said.

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