Awareness Building on Government Schemes at Sandebodangi
O C I organized an awareness building meeting at Sandebodangi village of Mundigodo GP on June 28, 2012. Altogether 30 villagers (18 women and 12 men) came for the meeting.
Sandebodangi is a remote village in Mundigodo GP at the far end bordering Kurtungodo GP. It is surrounded by forests and hills. No vehicles can reach there. The only way to reach there is to walk for an about one hour from Sindhiponkhal village climbing a stiff hill. We can go up Sindhipokhal village by vehicles. Then leave the vehicle and walk to reach there. There are 17 families inhabiting in 3 hamlets.
This village is one of the most neglected and deprived of all government schemes. No government officials ever reach there. Gram Panchayat too has not paid any attention for the development of the village. So far one “Chuan” (small open well under the hill foot) for drinking water in Gugudisuga hamlet, another 10 feet deep open well at Sandebodangi and an approach road from Sindhiponkhal to Gugudisuga hamlet is made in 2011. !3 families have been issued Podipatra (Card for getting Rs. 2/- Kg rice), 5 families with Antodaya card and all have got Job card. Only this many things have been done for this village in spiting of people living there for 3 generations.
The most basic requirements like Indira Awas. B P L card and Patta for land holding under Right to Forest Act has not been issued. They have tried their best to approach concerned departments at different times but all in vain. At this point O C I have taken initiative to bring awareness on different government schemes and show them the way. We encourage and support them to take bold steps to avail these facilities.
Mr. Ullash and Fr. Gyan spent about 2 hours discussing and explaining different government schemes especially on the above mentioned schemes for the development of the villages. Mr. Ullsh also told them about schemes on Agricultural, Horticulture, Health, Education and SHG. The decision is taken that the application will be submitted to B D O and Tahsildar at Tumudibandha Block and copies of the same will be sent to Sub-collector, Balliguda and to Collector, Phulbani. O C I will help them to draft the application on July 2, 2012. Two villagers will come to O C I office bringing all the details about the village. Let us hope that the efforts made bear fruit in the coming days.
We also had SHG meeting there with the women. The meeting register, monthly collection and bank pass book was checked by Mr. Ullash. Two major issues regarding the group functioning was discussed. One is on irregular attendance by members in the meeting. The second on monthly collection which is not done regularly? We strongly told them that if the group has to grow, they need to pay attention to these things. If they do not take care of these, they will not be able to avail different scheme for the SHG groups. We hope there will be improvement in group functioning and its activities.
We wish them good luck for their bold efforts.