As commendably, all this has been achieved without any extra staff and with systematic transparency. More than 1.64 lakh families have been provided employment, but till date there have been only 120 complaints.

Well-begun is...

THE numbers make easy reading, but putting them there wasn’t a cakewalk. According to district officials, Rajpal began work on the NREGS even before the Centre announced a date for the launch, downloading the draft of the scheme from the Net in November last year and holding the first meeting on the subject on November 28, 2005.

“At that first meeting, she emphasised the need for a well-drafted awareness campaign to ensure the tribals make the most of the scheme. We started work on it right away,” says Mohan Lal Sharma, chief executive officer of the district.

Even as they awaited the official intimation, over December 2005 and January 2006, Rajpal conducted meetings and organised workshops for senior officials, followed by similar workshops at the panchayat level. That was the easy part: The challenge lay in getting the message across to the closed societies of the tribals.

Rajpal, her officials say, took a personal interest in the campaign, regularly visiting the various tribal groups across the 237 gram panchayats in the district. She participated in local events and tried to join in the social gatherings so that the tribals would open up to her.

“Rajpal would interact with the tribals as much as she could, which helped in bringing the tribals to workshops and sessions on the EGS. Initially, it seemed like an uphill task, but the tribals soon began trusting us and showing an interest,” says Mahesh Sharma, project manager.

... contd.