In Mandya village, grama sabha meeting goes online

MYSURU: A remote village in Maddur taluk of Mandya district held an online grama sabha meeting which was attended by around 200 villagers from three different villages.
The meeting was hosted at Hemmanahalli village from 11am to 2pm on Wednesday, via Zoom. MGNREGA action plan and social audit of the 14th finance commission funds were approved.
Grama panchayat development officer (PDO) Leelavati said villagers joined in from Yaraganahalli and Hanumathapura villages which are the part of Hemmanahalli grama panchayat.“In Hemmanahalli, 79 villagers participated, alongside 65 from Yaraganahalli and 57 from Hanumanthapura . Those who had Android mobile phones joined the meeting via the Zoom link provided by us. For others, we set up dedicated centres from where they could join the meeting using web cameras,” she said.
“We were all curious as it was for the first time that a grama sabha was conducted online. It was a new experience for villagers but it went off without any glitches. Women too participated in greater numbers,” said Leelavati.
“We discussed many issues in the meeting, including ensuring jobs for all those who are migrating from the city,” said HS Srinivas, a farmer and director of village milk producers’ society. “Officials explained the MGNREGA rules as well. It was a novel experience,” he said.
The Abdul Nazeer Sab State Institute for Rural Development & Panchayat Raj had suggested to the PDO to experiment online grama sabha meeting.
Grama panchayat administrator Mahadeva, who is also the block education officer, also participated in the meeting.
The Hemmanahalli grama panchayat was earlier selected for the Child-friendly Gram Panchayat Award 2020 (appraisal year 2018-19) by the Union ministry of Panchayati Raj.