Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand, is one of the many Indian cities selected to be developed as a smart city under the Prime Minister’s Smart Cities Mission. The district, with Ranchi as its part, is coming up with new initiatives frequently for the betterment of its people, thanks to District Collector, Mr. Chhavi Ranjan, an IAS officer of the 2011-batch, Jharkhand cadre.
In a conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Ranjan talks about his new initiatives
PROJECT PAVITRA
There is an everlasting problem of menstrual hygiene existing in rural districts of the nation. Due to lack of awareness, hundreds of women suffer from serious diseases, because of lack of hygiene during menstruation days.
`Project Pavitra’, launched by Mr. Ranjan, is a menstruation hygiene management awareness program aimed at educating adolescent girls on safe menstruation. It talks about the stigmas attached to menstruation, the availability of menstrual products, their safe usage, and disposal.
“So far, it has been rolled out in 3 phases across all the KGBVs, government schools, and selected panchayats of the district. The total number of girls trained till date stands at 17000+” Mr. Ranjan told Indian Masterminds.
‘Project Pavitra’ was also recognized as a `best practice’ by NITI Aayog.
WALL OF TRANSPARENCY
This program was initiated in the Ormanjhi block in Ranchi to activate transparency between civilians and the government so that they become aware of the schemes and benefits that the administration can provide them.
Under the project, a physical wall is constructed at the center of a village; one side of this wall maps out all the human, physical, and natural resource assets of the village. On the other side, it lists all active schemes in the village along with a beneficiary list, project description, and sanctioned amounts.
“This ensures maximum transparency and spreading awareness among the people. It is currently active in 7-8 villages in Ormanjhi and is being implemented in other blocks of Ranchi as well” stated Mr. Ranjan.
PROJECT RANGEET
The Covid19 pandemic forced everyone to stay in their homes for almost an entire year. And now, when things are gradually limping back to normal and schools are reopening, it’s getting hard for kids to get back to their previous routine as they are not used to adapt to changes quickly.
To help them, Ranchi District Administration has piloted a social-emotional learning program for primary school students. This initiative is supported by the World Economic Forum, Project Rangeet, and CRY.
“Students returning to schools after spending over a year at home will require additional support when dealing with the stress and anxiety of coming back to the classrooms. This program is meant to benefit all those students and create an inclusive space for teachers and students alike” Mr. Ranjan told Indian Masterminds.
BHOOMI VIVAD NIVARAN
The land is a scarce resource in a place like Ranchi, which is more like an urban settlement than a city. There are many cases in the district where people with land in suburban and rural areas face issues of illegal acquisition due to reasons like loans, undue influence by others and fraud, etc. Victims do not even get instant justice as these cases get embroiled in the civil courts for years.
“I felt that an initiative of Bhumi Vivad Nivaran Diwas would be a unique initiative by the Ranchi Administration to resolve the issues of illegal land acquisition.”
Every Saturday, in the presence of authorities, a meeting is held in each block in the Circle Office where the public puts across their complaint of illegal land acquisition. Real-time application is submitted to the officers and instant redressal and resolving of the issues are done by the authorities.
“As per the records, out of 4542 cases raised, 2839 cases of the illegal land acquisition have been resolved in the 21 Bhoomi Vivad Niwaran Diwas held,” pointed out Mr. Ranjan.
SARKAR AAPKE DWAR
People living in rural areas are ignorant of the schemes and programs of the government due to which they remain deprived of their benefits.
Thus, the administration has come up with the initiative of “Sarkar Aapke Dwar” (Government at your door), whereby every Thursday a meeting is held in the Panchayat Bhawan. The meeting is attended by block-level officials from all the key departments, where they introduce their ongoing and new schemes, their benefits, and the documents required for availing the benefits.
Said Mr. Ranjan, “Sarkar Aapke Dwar has been conducted on 6 to 7 Thursdays over a period of two months, covering 3 Panchayats each Thursday in every block.’’
The city, under the district collector Mr. Ranjan is flourishing and will hopefully continue to do so owing to his various projects and initiatives.
