"TRACE"-ing Our Future (Day-1)

Trichy Academy for Competitive Examinations (TRACE) gave me a chance of exploring the real time scenario encountered in the life of a civil servant before actual training. Along with 8 colleagues, we witnessed the actual implementation of various state and central schemes in different panchayats of Trichy district. With every area we covered, I could see how Tamilnadu easily qualifies as one of the leading states in Tamilnadu.

We started off by listening to a general overview of our plan of visit by the Project Director Mr.R. Venkatachalam and the District Collector (I/C) of Trichy, Mr.Raman. Mr.Murugannan, Block Development Officer accompanied us throughout the tour and briefed the salient features of each of the schemes. TRACE team acted as our tourist guides and revealed interesting snippets for us to ponder upon.

We visited the NIC/ELCOT training centre to know about the diverse applications of computers in administration (e-Governance) like
* land record maintenance
* Online Grievance Redressal
* PDS management
* Old age pension disbursement
* Payroll system
* transport & passport office
ELCOT's product TNSWAN has thus spread its wings in all arenas of governance. Interestingly, NIC is the agency that plans to give unique email addresses to every government servant.

Then we travelled to Navalpattu panchayat (Thiruverumbur taluk) to visualise the functioning of the MGNREGS. Enroute to the destination, we caught a glimpse of the NABARD sponsored approach-road laying scheme and Navalpattu Primary Health Centre (PHC). The PHC was a small area but well-maintained and did not have any undesirable stench which I have so far associated with the thought of GHs. They regularly update details regarding diseases treated on HMIS (Health Management Information System) website.

The Thamaraikulam Supply channel desiltation work was done as part of MGNREGS in Navalpattu panchayat. We were elaborated on job cards, unique family numbers, settlement of wages, attendance, division of labour, etc. We were also informed that in the adjacent Manigandam taluk, the implementation of wage settlement has been made transparent by operating individual labourer's account in banks.

We then watched the activities carried out by the RD & PR department, under the state scheme - AGAMT (Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam). The compulsory works we witnessed were Oorani/Pond Construction, Library, Community Sports centre, and Cremation/Burial ground. Manjathidal pond in Ellaikudi panchayat was a sad remnant of the 4 year old pond construction work, still hailed as equivalent to Chicago by RD website, thus impacting on our minds the necessity of maintenance of excellently carried out schemes. Ellaikudi has also been awarded the NGP under the Total sanitation campaign (TSC). We saw the pond of Pappakurichi under construction and the Library of Ellaikudi. Its honorary librarian was a responsible lady- a retired school teacher.

The day ended with an interaction of our team with TRACE aspirants followed by a brief felicitation and dinner with the Dt. Collector (I/C), City Police Commissioner, Corporation Commissioner, literatteurs, orators and chief patrons instrumental in the establishment of TRACE, parents and aspirants.