Theme park to educate public about rural development schemes

A Theme Park is coming up in Chamarajanagar to educate general public about rural development schemes and conservation of forests and wildlife. 25 models have been exhibited in a park opposite to Zilla Panchayat Meeting Hall spread across 15 guntas.

These models depict various issues such as attires or traditional dresses worn by villagers, information about MGNREGA, Happy Farmers Family, Gram Sabha meetings, Water Scheme, Gram Panchayat One concept, rural services for the village, mini water scheme, Swatch Bharath Abhiyana, steps taken to make district free of open defecation and the usefulness of owning toilets and information about several other programmes of both State and Central government.

With Chamarajanagar having 52 per cent forest cover, a concept of 'Vana Devathe' (Goddesses of Forest) has been depicted, to spread the message of conserving forests, prevent cutting trees and save wild lives. Artiste Ramesh accompanied with 12 other artistes from Tamil Nadu has created the models. The park will be inaugurated by the end of this month.

 Using some of the models exhibited during Mysuru Dasara, the Chamarajanagar Zilla Panchayat decided to rearrange the models, and came out with a novel Theme Park idea, which is said to be first of its kind in State.

Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr KH Narasimhamurthy says the theme park will be useful to educate people, as well as officials about the various government schemes.

'District Resource Center will be inaugurated soon where SHGs, rural women, beneficiaries of NAREGA and officers will be trained. The theme park helps them to have an overview of the programmes implemented by the government for rural development. By observing the models people will understand better about GP one, Swatch Bharath , conservation of water and other schemes,' he opined.

'Government had spent nearly Rs 13.5 lakhs to erect stalls at Dasara. The models were created using cement cast spending Rs 11 lakh. While the remaining money was spent for creating the theme park. This will be a novel idea for other districts to follow and educate people,' he opines.

Artiste Ramesh says: 'If the officials think of displaying cement models during dasara, in the coming days the models can be reused to display the same in city parks to enhance the beauty of gardens. If made out of fiber or PoP it cant be used for long time.'