I am delighted to participate in the inauguration of the PURA project at Baktara in Arang Tehsil. I understand this is the first PURA covering 22 villages of Arang Tehsil in Raipur district notified by the Chhattisgarh Government. I have seen number of PURAs in different parts of the country. However this is the first PURA which has been undertaken by the State Government with well defined development goals and a management structure. I congratulate the Government of Chhattisgarh, elected members of the local bodies pertaining to the 22 villages constituting the PURA, NGOs and other partners in the programme for taking up this important initiative. While I am with you, I would like to visualize the full-fledged Baktara PURA, in 2011 when it is fully implemented.

Baktara PURA in 2011

This PURA complex would have transformed into a dynamic rural complex with focus on employment potential for about 50% of the families of Baktara with three Connectivities like physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity, leading to economic connectivity. This PURA complex should have its umbilical connectivity with the nearest university. Let us visualize how the Baktara will transform into by the year 2011:

a) The 5880 dwelling units will have houses with clean water supply and sanitation facilities.

b) The village complex will have 100% literacy among the 34,000 citizens

c) Apart from upgrading the existing schools, the complex will have few colleges, world class vocational training institutions in construction, carpentry, welding natural art; Computer maintenance and Services, IT Enabled Services, BPO and Call Center. Sakshat programme - a one stop education portal will be used through internet for capacity building in this region.

d) The people in the PURA complex will be able to get quality healthcare through tele-medicine and also through mobile clinics via PHC. They will be brought under a corporate medical healthcare scheme.

e) This PURA village complex will be free from diseases like polio, TB, leprosy and malaria and other waterborne diseases. The infant mortality rate will be less than 10.

f) The PURA complex will promote horticulture and floriculture products, apart from agriculture in collaboration with Ravi Shankar Shukla University and Agriculture University.

g) There will be agro-processing industries in the PURA complex for value addition to the horticulture produce.

h) Dairy will be functional producing over One lakh ltrs of milk per day to Raipur and other areas. They can also produce other milk products. This dairy will be established in collaboration with institutions like BAIF.

i) The 70 water bodies in this PURA cluster will be operational and used for water harvesting during the rainy season.

j) All the 17,000 employable people of the village will have an additional job in dairy, agro-processing industry, construction business and tourism.

k) The per capita income of this PURA cluster will be three times the present.

Of course to achieve the above performance, a dynamic PURA management system is very vital. This has to be evolved with the active participation of State Government, District authorities, NGO, educational institutions, small scale industries or an enterprise in association with the Panchayat. Finally it has to be managed as a viable and sustainable business proposition through the local entrepreneurship.

Message from other operational PURAs

The creation of this PURA at Bhaktara should lead to the establishment of nearly 150 PURAs in the whole state of Chhattisgarh. The members of the PURA Development Authority and the elected representatives of the villages may like to visit some of the operational PURAs such as Periyar Pura, in Tamil Nadu Loni Pura in Maharashtra, Chitrakoot Pura in MP and Byrraju Pura in Andhra Pradesh. The experience from these operational PURA, will enable you to accelerate the implementation process such as: employment generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of self-help groups. Conversion of waste land into cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. Creation of bio-mass units, solar energy systems and running of marketing centers.

From the Chitrakoot model you can appreciate how a conflict free society can be created in these 22 villages. You can even consider creation of a BPO on the lines of Byrraju PURA.

The employment generation must be the focus using technology experiences from the colleges and educational institutions and through assessment of markets which can absorb the products and services from these PURA complexes.

Conclusion

The entire PURA cluster has to function as a viable sustainable business entity providing certain value added quality services to the rural community and opportunities for entrepreneurial growth in the rural sector. The PURA unit as a whole should aim to improve the quality of life and welfare of the rural community encouraging reverse migration of urban people to rural areas. Also, the PURA unit should enable preservation and nurturing of cultural heritage of the region. PURA should be implemented as a participative endeavour between all the stake holders namely, people of the villages, elected members, entrepreneurs, members of the state government and central government and societal transformers.

In a democracy always there will be a situation when new projects will be launched in a state when one party is governing and another party is in the opposition. In development politics change of ruling party should not become the cause for reversing the development process which have already been initiated, and the citizens should not become the victim of the change. Always there should be a healthy competition in development.

With these words I inaugurate the Baktara PURA programme of Chhattisgarh Government and my best wishes to the PURA Development Authority and its partners success in their mission of implementing a model PURA of Chhattisgarh which will bring prosperity, happiness, peace and security to all the citizens of these 22 villages. Let this mission spread to the whole state.

May God bless you.

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