HYDERABAD, 13 April 2006 — Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday expressed keen interest in replicating India’s experience in rural development through elected local bodies system.
He sought India’s assistance to help set up training institutes like the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD). On the concluding day of his two-day visit to the city, Karzai, accompanied by ministers, members of Parliament and other officials of his country, spent two hours at the NIRD campus in Rajendernagar studying various models of rural development and technology and interacting with faculty officials.
“The experience this morning is of immense importance to Afghanistan where we also have a lot of need for rural development, for the empowerment of rural people and for the empowerment of women”, he told reporters after visiting the Rural Technology Park where rural artisans had set up stalls selling homemade cloth and other handicrafts.
Karzai visited the place wearing a straw hat and a shawl, presented to him as gifts. He and his entourage did some shopping as well.
“The visit to NIRD in Hyderabad today is one that we will definitely remember and try to apply there in Afghan villages and rural areas by way of implementation and research, by way of Panchayat Raj institutions,” he said.
The Afghan president said that the intensive rural development program, including building of roads, hospitals and irrigation systems in Afghanistan began four years ago. “But what we learned today here will add tremendous value to our work and add to our experience,” he added.
Asked about plans for setting up an institution like NIRD in Kabul, he said that the plan was already there. “To implement that plan and to extend that to rural areas, help from NIRD will go a long way,” he said.
He sought India’s support for training Afghans and for setting up similar institutions in Afghanistan. “I request that India should help us in getting acquainted with the way Indians work in rural areas so that we can do the same in our rural areas,” he said.
The officials also showed him various models of rural technology such as cheap housing technology involving locally available material and solar energy technology.
Karzai said that his government wanted to give top priority to four areas in rural development, such as methods of outreaching the rural population, use of modern technology, utilization of waste material and development of alternative technologies including the use of solar power.
He said Afghanistan also had a lot of sunshine, which could be converted into solar energy if proper technology and trained manpower was available. He said that 12 Afghans were undertaking training at the NIRD and added that he wanted the number to increase to 200. An Afghan MP in the delegation said that the number could be increased to 2,000 if a similar institution was set up and the NIRD provided help for that.
NIRD Director General V. S. Sampath assured the Afghan president that NIRD would always be with him in his efforts for rural development. “We are willing to provide you every possible help,” he added.
