KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 22: As part of its 25 years jubilee celebration, Kohima Village Gazetted Officers’ Association (KVGOA) today organised a seminar at Kohima Village Council Hall, sponsored by Department of Rural Development and Department of Land Resources.
Resource persons namely the Block Development Officer (BDO), Kohima, Vihesanuo Solo, and the District Project Officer of Land Resources Department, Kohima, Dr. Menuosietuo Tseikha, made presentations on the topics ‘Roles and responsibilities of VDBs in the implementation of RD schemes’ and ‘Potentiality of coffee plantation in Kohima district’ respectively.
In her presentation, BDO Vihesanuo said RD Department has been involved in the developmental activities in rural areas through the implementation of various programmes and schemes. She said all activities of the Department were implemented through the grass root level organisation known as Village Development Board (VDB), adding that power was delegated to the VDBs to plan and make decisions on all aspects of development with the funds provided by the department. She said most of the villages have been provided with the basic infrastructure requirements such as roads, community buildings, educational institutions, rural housing etc.
Dwelling on the important role of the VDBs, she said VDB is to identify and select priority based schemes through general body meeting and prepare the village master plan. While doing this, she said the VDBs must ensure implementation of scheme on ground reality, community participation, transparency and proper utilisation of funds and maintenance of records. She stressed that the management committee formed out of the general body with women and youth representative should oversee the works that are being carried out. Besides, she also highlighted various programmes implemented by the department such as grant-in-aid, PMAY (IAY), MGNREGS, micro-finance, VDB fixed deposits and VDB welfare funds.
She also said that the department, this year, had set targets for construction of individual household latrines (IHHL) as part of Swatch Bharat Mission. Presenting the achievements of Kohima village VDB for the last five years, she said Kohima village VDB under RD Block Kohima was awarded the best performing VDB this year.
Dr. Menuosietuo, in his presentation, said Kohima has the potential of coffee plantation because of the high altitude and rainfall and with the suitable soil condition. Maintaining that coffee could be cultivated even in reserved forest, he called upon the farmers of Kohima village to venture into coffee plantation on large scale.
He also said coffee can be a permanent source of income to uplift the economy of the people as it is on high demand locally, nationally and internationally. He revealed that about 4470 kgs of coffee can be produced in one hectare of land and earn yielding amounting to Rs 6.70 lakh.
Dr. Menuosietuo also asserted that interested coffee growers will be provided with free coffee saplings, conduct capacity building, providing technical support and monitoring by the LRD by linking them with Coffee Board of India.
He further stated that about 2.80 lakh coffee saplings were distributed in Kohima district alone.
