Report bares valley area woes
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 22 2014 : Almost 79 per cent of the people living in the four valley districts of Ma-nipur under Gram Panchayats use raw or untreated water from ponds, rivers and canals and they are spending around Rs 400 on the average every month in buying drinking water, ac-cording to Village Develop- ment Profile published by the Manipur State Panchayat Pa-rishad.

The Village Development Profile was released today at Panchayat Bhavan, Porompat under the aegis of the Mani-pur State Panchayat Parishad.

According to the profile, rural areas of Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur and Thoubal draw their daily requirement of water from ponds, rivers and canals.

While 79 per cent of the people rely on these natural sources of water for their daily requirement, only 28.28 per cent has access to tap water.

The first ever village development profile of the State covers 161 Gram Panchayats of the four valley districts.

A young girl collects water

It said that 68.77 per cent of the IVRs connecting these rural areas are not black top-ped.

Only 35.28 per cent has been black topped so far.

85.63 per cent live in woo-den or kutcha houses while 2.87 per cent enjoy the luxury to live in concrete houses.

There are 432 doctors and 1234 nurses within these Gram Panchayats.

Nevertheless, there are 1534 popular Maibas (medicine men cum priests) .

The profile paints a very disappointing picture of sanitation in these areas.

Still 53.32 per cent uses kutcha latrines while 28.54 per cent have no latrines at all.

Auto-rickshaws are the most common means of transport.

Even though auto-rickshaw fares are higher, the rural folks need to walk at least 3 Kms if they should travel by bus which is cheaper.

The profile underscored the need to formulate a special plan for rural female education.

Despite the presence of Right to Education Act which guarantees free and compulsory education to all children up to secondary level, 52.47 per cent of the girl students are school drop-outs.

Only 23.32 per cent has authorised or official electricity connectivity while the remaining households have unauthorised connection but power supply in these areas is restricted to just a few hours in a day.

The profile also gives a picture of tourism and model village, marketing, structure of employment, land use pattern and education in these areas.

The function held today at Panchayat Bhavan was attended by MOBC and Science & Technology Parliamentary Secretary Amin Shah, core committee chairman of the Village Development Profile Prof N Mohendro, North Tripura Panchayat Samiti Chairman Konthoujam Rabindra, Bishnupur Adhyaksha Th Ithoibi, Thoubal Adhyaksha Kh Surnalata, Imphal West Adhyaksha Y Dasumati and Manipur State Panchayat Parishad president T Itombi as presidium members.

Speaking at the occasion, Prof Mohendro noted that there were little training and capacity building programmes for elected Panchayat members.

Unlike in Manipur, development programmes at Panchayat level are being taken up with a perspective plan in Assam and Sikkim.

The Village Development Profile released today would be sent to the Planning Commission and it would be an useful handbook in planning development programmes in rural areas of Manipur, Prof Mohendro added.