Development board takes Naga village to prosperity

Development board takes Naga village to prosperity
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

CHUCHUYIMLANG (NAGALAND), JULY 3: When the deputy commissioner of Mokokchung district came to Chuchuyimlang lugging a blackboard to illustrate the development and utilisation of community funds, it was a distant dream for the villagers.

Today, the Village Development Board (VDB) in Nagaland is a success story boasting of having constructed roads linking four khels colonies village council courts, a community rice mill, granary, dairy, multi-purpose building for women and four primary school buildings to mention only a few.

A VDB management committee is represented by one member each from all the sub-clans, two women members and a youth for each khel.

``The Village Development Board in Nagaland has completed 15 years and most villages in the state have developed to a great extent and utilisation of fund is better than that in government departments. Still some of the VDBs are far behind,'' says Chuchuyimlang's VDB secretary Latongwati Ao.

An integrated and continued programme for training and refreshers' course and constant guidance of officers belonging to rural development department has helped villagers pick up ideas to develop their own villages and made the dream a reality, Ao says.

Apart from village development, the Village Development Board is also actively involved in afforestationAs the villagers practice slash and burn paddy cultivation, large number of trees are destroyed. Realising the losses the members of VDB adopted a resolution in 1995 to plant 100 trees every year by every cultivator in each jhum cultivation circle.

Following the resolution VDB nominated 6 persons to open a nursery unit around the village and supply uniform saplings at a nominal price.