Village Vand,District Dhulera

Vand village in Dhulera district is the setting for this case on the implementation of the government housing programme for weaker sections.

A young Assistant Collector finds that the newly constructed huts had collapsed (:liter the first rains. He asks the Sarpanch, who had improperly been awarded the construction contract, to rebuild the huts at his own cost. The Assistant Collector also discovers that the Sarpanch, with the connivance of the Tehsildar, had managed to get prosperous villagers listed as allottees instead of the deserving poor. The corrective measures that the Assistant Collector initiates, with the help of the Police Patil, meet with resistance. Before the case is resolved, the Assistant Collector is transferred on promotion. Soon thereafter, the Police Patil is falsely implicated by the Sarpanch in a murder case.

Village Vand, District Dhulera, contributed by an lAS officer who wishes to remain anonymous, raises questions on the strategies administrators should adopt to reach the benefits of government programmes to targetted groups, adequacy of powers delegated to administrators, role of development functionaries in equityoriented programmes, and the involvement of beneficiaries in the process of implementation.