In a unique experiment to reach out to beneficiaries directly the ministry of rural development brought its minister Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, union minister for rural development, "face-to-face" for a communications session with over 1100 panchayats in Orissa through ISRO's Gram SAT satellite.

The exercise was aimed at getting feedback on the various rural development schemes under operation in the state and to gain an insight into the problems at the field level, on which the ministry needed to focus further planning efforts.

The effort was equally aimed at enhancing the awareness of the beneficiaries on their entitlement and various processes involved for availing the benefit of the schemes.

As this was the first communications exercise of its kind, it evoked tremendous enthusiasm and response from participants down up to the panchayat level, with almost 100,000 people present at the Gram SAT centres set up in 30 districts, covering 314 blocks and 1179 panchayats.

The communication initiative was part of the ministry's effort to bring about transparency and efficiency in implementation of its various schemes all over the country, for which it has been initiating different proactive measures like online monitoring and social auditing, among others.

Dr Singh said that this experiment would go a long way in bringing the government machinery to the doorsteps of the beneficiaries and mitigating their problems and issues and provided a detailed account of the financial and physical allocations and achievements of rural development schemes in Orissa in his address through the satellite.

Dr Singh assured his audience of stern measures to stamp out any attempt at any level to deprive the beneficiaries from their rights and warned that corruption would not be tolerated in implementation of the rural development schemes.

Also present on the occasion was Chandra Shekhar Sahu, union minister of state for rural development, who emphasised on the need for cooperation between the state and central government departmentsd for effective implementation of rural development schemes.

Gram SAT pilot projects are being run in some select states of the country and are being utilised very to reach out development messages directly to the villagers by ensuring community listening, viewing and linking up large body of villagers.

In view of the high potential of this media the IEC division of MoRD has initiated this unique experimentation. Appreciating the initiative, Dr. Singh directed to arrange for such conferences once in a month on rotational basis. The minister will discuss other technical options with ISRO to reach the intended beneficiaries of centrallyu assisted projects and schemes including exploring the possibility of creating a dedicated television and radio channel for rural development.