KUPWARA : A group of 70 PRIs, (Sarpanchs, Panchs) drawn from different blocks of Kupwara district were flagged-off to Rajasthan and Punjab for an exposure tour of seven days by District Development Commissioner (DDC) Kupwara, Ayushi Sudan from DC Office Complex.

During the tour, the PRIs will visit different model Panchayats of Rajasthan and Punjab for training cum exposure visit.

The purpose of the visit is to expose them to the best practices being followed by their counterparts and make them interact with the beacon leaders and successful PRIs to learn about the implementation of Panchayat Raj and other flagship programmes.

During the flagging-off ceremony, the DDC held an interaction with PRIs and impressed upon them to take maximum advantage of this exposure tour so that the best practices learnt get replicated in various Panchayats of Kupwara district.

“Exposure tours will help you adopt best practices prevailing at the National level. PRIs of Jammu and Kashmir have faced enormous challenges and countered them bravely and made the Panchayt Raj system very effective in J&K UT”, DDC said.

Ayushi on the occasion said that ADF (Area Development Fund) constitutes around 60% of budget allocation of the Kupwara district and PRIs are playing a crucial role in Planning and monitoring of developmental projects in the district. She also appealed to the PRIs to play an active role in making the Swachhta campaign a success in the district and wished PRIs for a successful and fruitful visit.

ADDC Kupwara, Altaf Ahmad Khan,; ACP Kupwara, District Information Officer Kupwara and officers and officials of RDD Kupwara attended the flag-off ceremony.