Raipur : Deputy Chief Minister Shri Vijay Sharma met with a group of 75 Gram Panchayat representatives from Sukma district who had come for training. During the meeting, he held detailed discussions with the Panchayat representatives on the development of their villages. The group included village sarpanches, deputy sarpanches, and panches from Sukma district. Each presented their views to the Deputy Chief Minister. He learned about the problems facing their villages by meeting with them.

On this occasion, the Deputy Chief Minister discussed with everyone and sought information regarding collection and marketing of forest produce. On which the Gram Panchayat representatives told that they sell their forest produce to local middlemen, on which the Deputy Chief Minister motivated them to get fair price for their forest produce by getting the forest produce collected by the village youth and taking it to big markets through the government. He advised to get the forest produce processed locally and add value to it. For this, he directed the officials to take 10 people from each village on educational tours to big markets like Hyderabad and make them aware of the benefits of processing and value addition.

He urged all Panchayat representatives to restore peace in the villages, accelerate development, and take advantage of the Ilvad Panchayat Yojana. The representatives also presented their village problems, to which the Deputy Chief Minister assured them of their speedy resolution. They discussed in detail the Bihan Yojana, banking facilities, roads, Bastar Olympics, electricity supply, and health facilities in the villages. Niharika Barik Singh, Principal Secretary of the Panchayat Department, was also present on the occasion.