Villages within the picturesque valley of Kashmir are laden with beauty and greenery. There isn’t any shortage of natural exquisiteness in these villages. A drive on National Highway 1 from the South of the valley through downtown and further towards the North is also a tread to heaven itself. The contrast of green summer and bright white winters maintains bliss in the minds of tourists from all over the globe. It, however, remains true that there certainly is an enormous scope of development throughout the villages of Kashmir. The central and UT governments have already taken steps in this direction by adopting various villages. Also, the concept of ‘Model Villages’ has been conceived. For example, the Union Government has moved on to develop five villages within the Dal Lake area as ‘Tourist villages’. The Tourist Villages Development Programme under the Mission Youth initiative, which aims at evolving each of 75 villages having an edge in scenic exquisiteness, exploratory topography, art and culture, and history, has gained very high momentum and is witnessing a heavy influx of Indian as well as foreign tourists
Also, the thing to be understood is that development of villages doesn’t only facilitate the tourism and general upscaling of villages, but it is also helpful in alleviating poverty and augmenting the overall living standard of people, not to mention the channelising of masses in the right direction. As a first of its kind, the Government of UT of Jammu and Kashmir has begun a determined and widespread programme of enveloping the people at the grassroot level to make a solemn longing for an upbeat standard of living for the farmers. The ‘Back to Village’ programme is intended to encompass people of the UT and government machinery in a joint effort to deliver the mission of unbiased development. The programme is designed toward invigorating Panchayats and directing advance efforts in villages through civic partaking.
As an element of this programme, civil servants will reach out to every Panchayat of the UT, where they will stay for a selected time to interrelate and acquire feedback from the grassroots to navigate Government energies in refining the distribution of village-specific amenities. The ‘Back to Village’ programme has been conceptualized to safeguard developmental initiatives built on the response and assistance of the people rather than top down thus being more outcome-oriented with a superior likelihood of accomplishment.
The programme orbits around the thought that while the authorised machinery of officials must lead and support, the primary duty to reinforce local circumstances rests with the people themselves. Therefore, they have to be stimulated to identify themselves with the programme, so that the benefits are taken full advantage of. The method at the village level, therefore, has to be synchronised, stirring all facets of village life. Such a slant must be made, not through a multiplicity of departmental officials but through Panchayats.
In a nutshell, it may be understood that the government has already pushed many programmes in the pipeline aimed at holistic development of villages; however, a microscopic view of it tells us that things are yet to translate onto the ground. It is recommended that an empowered independent body be tasked to oversee the progress and be empowered to take corrective measures. Prudence in financial expenditure is the key to the actual path to development. Once the ecology is set up properly, it is bound to ensue in more revenue, mainly from tourism and its further utilisation in developmental projects.
