Banda district administration has been at the forefront when it comes to resolving developmental issues and creating awareness about various government schemes. Sandeep Kumar, Deputy Collector & District Probation Officer, Banda, talks about the various initiatives undertaken to ensure holistic development of the district in conversation with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN).
What steps are being taken for the holistic development of Banda? Also, as the head of Banda Development Authority please tell us which all initiatives have been taken in this direction?
Sandeep Kumar Deputy Collector & District Probation Officer, Banda
To ensure the holistic development of Banda, the Banda Development Authority has started many schemes. Under the guidance of District Magistrate, work has been started on all those schemes. One of the important schemes under implementation is developing Nawab Tank area as a picnic spot. It includes cleaning and restoration of the water body, putting up fencing and high mast lights for evening strollers.
Banda also faces traffic congestions in many areas. To address this issue, encroachments on all the major road junctions like Babulal Chauraha and Maharana Pratap Chauraha will be removed and the roads will be widened to ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic. Besides this, there are a number of schemes for the common people. For example, a housing scheme under which plots are allocated to people on reasonable rates through lottery system.
What steps have been taken to develop recreational spaces in Banda?
We have more than 2,000 ponds in There are a number of small and large parks in Banda. Banda Development Authority has developed Manyavar Kanshiram Park on the Naraini Road through State Development Corporation and handed it over to the Municipal Corporation. It’s a huge park which spreads across 19 acres. The District Magistrate has proposed developing a science park inside it, which will come up as a unique project in the city. We expect to get the project approval from the State government very soon.
Tell us about the initiative undertaken by the Banda district administration in creating awareness about Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao programme. What were the key achievements of Banda district under this programme?
I have the additional charge of District Probation Officer for the past three months. Under this programme, we have followed the guidelines of the State Government and undertook a month-long women empowerment campaign. We constituted various teams involving all the women officers of Banda district. These teams carried out a door to door campaign to create awareness about all the schemes designed for women empowerment by the State as well as Central Government.
Besides providing relevant information orally, pamphlets and handouts having written information were distributed under the campaign. It has been observed that despite State and Central governments launching a large number of schemes, there is a lack of general awareness amongst the beneficiaries. Therefore, they fail to avail the benefits available to them under these schemes. Camps focusing on women empowerment were organised in every block as well as some gram sabhas to provide information about the various government schemes at the doorstep with the help of ASHA workers, ANMs and Anganwadi workers.
Besides this, the child sex ratio of Banda district is very low as compared to the national average. We have observed a number of challenges like misconception among the people on the issue. Gender discrimination against female child is quite prevalent in Banda due to which female children are given less nutritious diet as compared to male children. To address this issue, we launched a nutrition scheme in collaboration with the Anganwadi workers and UNICEF under the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao programme. The aim of this scheme was to provide nutritious diet to female children since early childhood.
“To expedite the complaint resolution process, anybody can directly approach the District Magistrate’s office to submit a written complaint.”
We also covered schools and colleges, especially those for girls, to create awareness about various programmes aimed at women empowerment.
What steps have been taken to solve the problems of general public in a more expedient manner?
To expedite the complaint resolution process, anybody can directly approach the District Magistrate’s office to submit a written complaint. Besides that, complaints can also be registered online. After the complaint gets registered on the District Magistrate’s portal, it is forwarded to the relevant department for effective resolution in a time-bound manner.
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The District Magistrate’s office also follows it up with the department concerned on the telephone to complete the investigation at the earliest and resolve the issue. Demands for developing public infrastructure like roads are forwarded to the block concerned and after doing a feasibility study DPR is prepared for genuine and work is started as soon as possible.
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