Silent shutdown of rural futures in Telangana
The HinduNine years ago, Zubeda Begum took slow, determined steps on her crutches into the sprawling 177-acre campus of the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj. The panel suggested converting it into a Centre of Excellence or a Deemed University engaged in training and research with “gradual budget reduction of 25% per year in three years.” The Ministry of Rural Development agreed to the disengagement, charting a 10-year transition plan with a one-time lump sum grant to make NIRD&PR fully autonomous, say official sources. For 32-year-old Jayyarapu Ramesh, a social audit state resource person in Telangana’s Panchayat Raj and Rural Development department, NIRD&PR’s training was just as transformative. Former IAS officer Akunuri Murali, who once led Telangana’s Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, says he is appalled by the proposed “disengagement” of NIRD&PR. “The core mandate of the Rural Development Ministry is poverty reduction, and that is exactly what the NIRD&PR has been doing for decades,” says Murali, who is now heading the Telangana Education Commission.
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