UP Panchayats To Discuss Climate Change Impact

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh will organise a conference of panchayats on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5 to discuss village-level impact of climate change and ways to tackle it locally through the PPP (private-panchayat partnership) mode. A workshop will also be organised on the occasion by the state’s Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department with the support of rural development and panchayati raj departments.

According to a state government spokesman, while 250 panchayat secretaries and gram pradhans will attend the workshop offline, the remaining 58,000 gram panchayats will be able to join it online. Depart Secretary Ashish Tiwari said: “Those who have done commendable work at the panchayat level will share their experiences at the inaugural session of the workshop.”

Other sessions will focus on technical issues that are to be initiated at village level to tackle challenges posed by climate change.

Some of the initiatives can be taken up through convergence of the government schemes like gram panchayat development programme and the rest can be financed by the private sector under CSR. Along with the gram pradhans and panchayat secretaries, corporates, academia and experts on climate related subjects will also participate in the event. The objective of the conference is to make local institutions capable of handling risks arising out of climate change and generate solutions. Reaching out to the panchayats can be the first step in the direction of managing climate change in villages, Tiwari said.—IANS