and the potentialities of the project Drift: Outline of Projects area in which the village is situated. [From a Delhi Correspondent) These have to be worked out for each village and for the larger units UCH has been said both in tional distribution roughly as of which it is a constituent. M India and abroad about com­ follows: — In terms of amenities, the inten­ munity development projects in the (per cent) tion is to provide each village with: past lew months, especially after Agriculturists . . 50 (i) Two surface wells or tube- Mr Chester Bowles set about ' sell­ Agricultural labour, tractor well or tanks for drinking ing ' the idea to the Indian and and pump drivers, etc. 10 water. American , Yet, apart Arts, crafts and cottage (ii) Adequate facilities for drain- from vague notions that what was industries . . . . 12 meant was something like Etawah, Urban small scale indus- (iii) Agricultural extension Faridabad and Nilokheri, nothing tries .. . . 10 at the rate of one agricul­ definite was known about the gene­ Shopkeepers . . . . 3.5 tural extension worker for ric concept of a community deve­ School teachers . . 3.0 every five villages. lopment project. The Draft Out­ Transport . . . . 2.0 (iv) Veterinary services through line of Health services . . . . 2.0 a veterinary hospital at the Projects, prepared by the Com­ Other occupations . . 7.5 headquarters of the project munity Projects Administration, has area and through peripatetic therefore come none too soon and 100.0 agencies. should greatly help in clarifying the This is, of course, not a pattern (v) Sanitary services through a position. which all villages must attain. sanitary inspector maintain­ The Draft Outline describes in There would naturally be variations ed at the block centres. considerable detail the organisation due to special local factors. But, (vi) At least half of the agricul­ that is to be set up and the pro­ by and large, it is a pattern which tural land if possible should cedure for implementing these pro­ each village will try to approximate; be served with irrigation jects, the broad objectives aimed the actual magnitude of effort in­ through irrigation canals, at and the basic estimates regarding volved in bringing about such a re­ tubewells, surface wells, tanks expenditure. Undoubtedly, the out­ distribution will depend on the and lift irrigation from line has been prepared in great deviation from it at the beginning. rivers, lake, etc. haste and as a consequence has an appearance of scrappiness about it. Stilly there is much in it, about what is sought and how it is to be achieved, The idea is to plan for a cluster of villages, treating the village both as a unit by itself and as part of progressively larger conglomerations. You start, that is to say, with the village; then you link up several vil­ lages with a common market or mandi, bring together four or five such mandis to form a development block, and integrate five develop­ ment blocks to form a ' project area ' About 300 villages would constitute a project area, whose headquarters will be an urban-euin- rural township with a population of 10 to 20 thousand. The job, there­ fore, is one of developing the con­ stituent villages and townships in a manner conducive to the best ad­ vantage of all of them and knitting them into a " community ". It is a job which needs careful preparation and sustained effort. An idea of what is involved can be gathered from what is aimed at in respect of the smallest of the units to be treated, viz., the village. A village unit will, on an average, con­ sist of a population of 500, or about 100 families. The objective is to bring about on the presumption that, in general, man-power in the * No specific financial provision has been made for this item. This can be villages is not distributed in the most taken up only if there are approved savings on other heads which could be economical manner an occupa- switched over for this purpose. 419 (vii) I/3rd of the area of the for facilitating marketing, consider­ group of village because, it is said, village should be kept re­ able stress is laid on the Develop- of financial stringency. Instead, served for the village housing! ment of and on mandi centres will be provided at grazing fields and fuel forests maintenance of close links with the the headquarters of the ' develop­ freshly planted, if not already block or area headquarters. The ment block', which, it will be re­ existing. Culturable waste expenditure on the main roads will membered, is defined as covering land will be reclaimed. be provided by State or public four to five mandi units. The head­ (viii) The road system on the agencies; as regards the village and quarters of a development block countryside will be so deve­ feeder roads, it is a job to be done would be a rural-cum-urban ­ loped as to link every village by voluntary labour, and mobilisa­ ship, with a population of about within the project area up to tion of labour for this purpose should 5,000. The estimate of expenditure a maximum distance of half -itself serve as a spur to greater co­ on such a township in the basic plan a mile from the village, the operation and effort. is Rs 40 lakhs non-recurring and latter distance being connect­ The Draft Outline does not, un­ Rs 70,000 recurring. The facilities ed by feeder roads through fortunately, give a schedule of ex­ that will be available in a rural-cum- voluntary labour of the vil­ penditure estimates for the village urban township will obviously be lage population, only the unit. Presumably, it is because the more than in a typical mandi unit. main roads being provided greater part of capital expenditure The project area headquarters is for and maintained by the involved in providing the amenities a much larger affair; since the pro­ State or other public agencies. mentioned above will not be incur­ ject area will approximate a tehsil (ix) Schools for primary educa­ red in each village, but in the mandi or a sub-division under the existing tion for all school-going unit, or in the project or area head­ district pattern, the headquarters of children, quarters. In the village itself, such the project area is, in most cases, (x) Primary adult education capital formation as takes place will assumed already to exist. In the and recreation centre in the depend on the direct labour and basic plan of the , it is open air or in the village materials invested by the people. only for a few composite projects school conducted by the vil­ Coming now to the larger units. designed to rehabilitate displaced lage level worker with the The mandi unit would be a nucleus persons, that an urban-c urn-rural assistance of the teachers of of 15 to 25 village units, depend­ township has been planned as area the school. ing on the population, and would headquarters. (xi) Centres for fisheries (where constitute, as the name indicates, So much for the elucidation of a facilities exist). the primary market for the villages. typical community project. The It is a long and impressive list, It would also be the centre from Draft Outline suggests that what is and at first sight, it might appear which some of the amenities listed to be immediately undertaken is a too ambitious a programme. But it above are to be provided to the vil­ programme which does not conform should be noticed that their provi­ lages. Quite naturally, the mandi to this pattern in all details; it is sion is not so much a matter of unit is conceived as somewhat more not quite clear, however, which of spending rupees or dollars as of urbanised than the villages, con­ the steps have been skipped. There mobilising the and material sisting, besides a marketing centre, are, for instance, plans for two types resources within the village and the of a middle or secondary school, a of rural community projects, the development block. So far as train­ dispensary and health centre, agri­ Basic Type and the Composite Type. ed workers such as the agricultural cultural extension service and sub- Presumably, the former covers only extension worker, the sanitary in­ headquarters, a post and telegraph the village units, whereas the latter spector, etc., are concerned, they are office, a transport centre,' a com­ includes mandi units and townships to be shared by a group of villages, munity recreation centre, etc. In also. The details of cost estimates and arrangements for their training general, which are at present for each of these types, as also for will he made by the Central and serving as primary markets for a an urban unit with mandi facilities State Governments. One further group of villages in the project area are given below. point may be noted. While the bias will be developed as mandi units. Finally, a word about organisa­ is in favour of development of agri­ The basic estimate of expenditure tion. As usual, the need for work­ and handicrafts, it is expect­ for a mandi unit is given on ing exit the project within the frame­ ed that about 10 per cent of the page 419, work of a Federal Constitution com­ working population will have to be The programme currently spon­ plicates considerably the task of ad­ found employment in urban indus­ sored by the Government does not ministration. The Planning tries. For that purpose, as well as provide for a mandi unit for every {Continued on page 432)

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