GUWAHATI, Jan 20 - Indian villages are facing the problem of storage deficiency to store their waters. They are not facing shortage of water. For development of its rural areas, the country must overcome this problem, said Prof TG Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati (IITG), while inaugurating the two-day Second Rural Dialogue organised by the Centre for Rural Technology of IITG, jointly with non-profit social enterprise Innovoir and the All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG) on the IIT Guwahati campus, today.
Prof Sitharam also underlined the need to solve the problem of water quality, stated a press release.
Stating that water is very crucial for life and development, Prof Sitharam emphasised the need to build small dams, not big or large ones, to solve the problem of shortage in water storage facilities.
He reminded that since Independence, the country has been facing the problem of shortage of water. Initially, this problem was overlooked and those who matter in the arena of policy framing thought that the problem is confined only to Chennai and Bangalore. But, when this problem started gripping more and more areas, it was recognised as a major problem. Now, it has appeared that the problem lies in shortage of water storage facilities, not shortage of water, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, State�s former Director General of Police and president elect of the Asam Sahitya Sabha Dr Kuladhar Saikia said that all our technologies have urban bias. To drive home his point, he said that an automobile vehicle�s performance is judged by taking only its speed into account, without considering its capacity to carry more loads on muddy village roads.
�It is high time that our policy makers realised the fact that our village folks do not live in their (formers�) imagination, but they (village folks) live in reality,� said Dr Saikia.
He also observed that the indigenous knowledge and technologies the village people have been traditionally preserving, should be so upgraded that they can create a sense of belonging among these people.
Welcoming the guests and other participants at the two-day event, Prof SK Kakoty, head of the Centre for Rural Technology and Dean, Infrastructure, Planning and Management of IITG, said that the rural dialogue event has been envisioned basically as an event for interaction and exploration of collaboration with the perspective of bringing about a change in rural economy. The IIT Guwahati is currently implementing seven technologies. Of them, six are its own technologies while one was developed by IIT Bombay.
The IIT Guwahati has now been able to deliver in the area of rural technology because of the collaboration of other agencies like the public sector units (PSUs), NGOs and government agencies. It now wants to expand its areas of activities and with that goal the second rural dialogue is organised, said Prof Kakoty.
Speaking on the achievements the IIT Guwahati has been able to attain, Prof Kakoty mentioned the lady�s bicycle developed by it at the instance of Dr Kuladhar Saikia. This bicycle has the capacity to carry 150 kg of load and many women in areas like Udalguri are using it, he said.
The function was also addressed by Manjula Saikia Bhuyan, Additional Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Assam; Dr H Purusottam, Chairman and Managing Director, National Research Development Corporation; Ashok Wangkhade, Editor, Urban Update; Rajiv Kumar of the All India Institute of Local Self Government, among others.
About 40 experts are taking part in the deliberations as resource persons, while about 30 entrepreneurs and innovators, including innovative farmers, working in the rural areas, are taking part in the programmes of the event.
