Telangana Rural Development Minister Jupally Krishna Rao said that the nation's progress was possible if the rural society were to be developed.
Telangana Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Minister Jupally Krishna Rao today said that the nation's progress was possible only if its grassroots, the rural society, were to be developed.
People from 20 nations, including Tanzania, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives and others, attended the program.
NIRD Director General W R Reddy and members Shankar Chatterjee, Chinna Durai and Aruna Jayamani will be conducting the orientation program till November 27.
Inaugurating an international training program on the planning and management of rural development, organized for government employees at the NIRD in Rajendranagar, Rao said that rural areas, which constituted 70% of the nation, had been ignored for long.
The minister stressed the need for reaching out to the destitute through welfare schemes to ensure that rural people received the fruits of development on par with city dwellers.
He observed that despite there being several development programs under the ambit of the Centre and the State governments, poverty still remained in rural India. Despite initiating welfare schemes, villages still lagged behind, he said.
He pointed out some of the schemes launched by the Centre to alleviate poverty, including the Employment Guarantee Scheme, the PMGSY, the Rural Health Mission, Swachch Bharath and others.
The minister said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, too, launched several welfare schemes to alleviate poverty and develop rural areas. These include the pension scheme, providing free fine rice to poor students in residentials, the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme, the Shaadi Mubarak scheme, Stree Nidhi, Deepam, skill development program among others. Apart from these, the government was also finishing up irrigation projects and would soon irrigate one crore acres, the minister said.