Government to rope in more NRIs for Janmabhoomi

Amaravati: In order to increase the partnership from the non-residents of the State, the government has conducted a pilot survey in 19 villages in Guntur district with the help of journalism department of Acharya Nagarjuna University on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh launched Janmabhoomi programme to encourage non-residents of the State to take active participation in the development activities in their native villages.

The State government appointed Jayaram Komati as the special representative of Andhra Pradesh for North America, who is working on bringing NRIs support to motherland and connect them to the development of
the State.

Under the Janmabhoomi programme, the State government wants to uplift the less developed public services centres in various villages with the help of NRIs.
To implement the project on a pilot basis, the government wanted to know the ground level reality and the response from the public and awarded the task to Department of Mass Communication and Journalism in Acharya Nagarjuna University.

The department selected 19 villages and allocated 11 junior teams and eight senior teams with two members in each team to conduct a survey with more than 100 questions. The teams are asked to visit the Anganwadis, schools, hospitals, burial grounds and meet the stake holders like teachers, students, parents, Anganwadi workers, children, sarpanches, ASHA workers and others. They were monitored through Whatsapp and Kaizala apps constantly and instructions were sent accordingly.

Pradeep Karuturi, coordinator of the survey said, “From the initial interaction with the villagers, it was understood that they lack some of the basic needs like clean drinking water, toilets etc. Our priority was to understand the various needs of the schools, hospitals, burial grounds and Anganwadis and also how will the community participate in NRI’s supporting projects. We got encouraging response from the stakeholders.”

The survey was conducted in Velagapudi, Uddandarayuni Palem, Kuchenapalli, Ippatam, Jonnalagadda, Morlavaripalem, Kavuru, Appapuram, Peddapalii, Badepuram, Purushotpatnam, Nidamarru, Venigandla, Paladugu,Achutapuram, Pedakakani, Koppuravuru, Agatavarappadu, Peda Vadlapudi villages. The survey teams made some general observations which require attention of the government and the NRIs.

There were many Anganwadis that did not have compound walls, clean drinking water, proper toilet and sufficient toys and also most of them are in rented and in shattered condition.

The teachers are accepting the digital classroom system but are requesting for proper and continuous training and expressed security issues in some schools. There are burial grounds but most of them are without any basic infrastructure. The hospitals do not have ample facilities in the villages which is an added challenge.”

Based on the survey report, the Janmabhoomi programme team explains the NRIs on what areas they could help the government and where the money they are contributing and expertise they are offering is being utilised.