Normal C.D. Schemes (Community Development Schemes), Meghalaya

What are Normal C.D. Schemes in Meghalaya?

Normal C.D. Schemes are the Community Development schemes that the Community and Rural Development Department, Government of Meghalaya runs from its own state budget through the network of Community and Rural Development Blocks. The name is an administrative one rather than a marketing one: "C.D." stands for Community Development, the block-based programme that India adopted in the 1950s and that Meghalaya continues to operate as the department's general-purpose rural works head.

According to the department's Schemes Implemented page on megcnrd.gov.in, the programme's purpose is the "general development and upliftment of the socio-economic life of the rural people so as to foster the community spirit among the communities in the developmental process." That sentence explains the shape of the scheme. Normal C.D. Schemes is not a cash-transfer scheme with a beneficiary list. It is a flexible head under which a block can sanction small works that no larger centrally sponsored scheme happens to cover.

The department lists the sectors it operates in verbatim: "agriculture and land reclamation, health and sanitation, education, social education, animal husbandry including veterinary, industries including arts and crafts and rural roads." A village footpath, a small water point, a community shed for weaving or cane and bamboo work, land reclamation on a slope, a link road to a hamlet or a small addition to a school building are all the sort of work that falls inside those seven sectors.

How Normal C.D. Schemes differ from the department's other programmes

The Community and Rural Development Department also implements MGNREGA, PMAY-G, NRLM, DDU-GKY, RGSA, NSAP, SAGY, PMAGY and PMAAGY, all centrally sponsored, plus the state-sector Special Rural Works Programme. Normal C.D. Schemes sits apart from all of these:

• It is a state programme, not a centrally sponsored one.
• It is not tied to one sector the way PMAY-G is tied to housing or NRLM to self-help groups.
• It is approved inside the block, by the Block Development & Monitoring Committee, rather than by a district or state-level sanctioning authority.
• Unlike the Special Rural Works Programme, where the department records that "the scheme/projects/beneficiaries are selected by the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and implemented through the local durbar of villages and NGOs", Normal C.D. Schemes moves through the block administration.

Who is eligible under Normal C.D. Schemes?

Who the programme covers

• Rural villages in Meghalaya that fall within one of the state's C&RD Blocks. The department's directory lists 55 blocks across the 12 districts, from Mylliem and Mawsynram in East Khasi Hills to Baghmara and Chokpot in South Garo Hills and Resubelpara and Kharkutta in North Garo Hills.
• Village durbars and headmen, who are the normal channel through which a village's needs reach the block office in Meghalaya.
• Community groups, schools, small rural craft and weaving groups and veterinary or health facilities in a village, where the work sought falls inside one of the seven notified sectors.

Who cannot apply

• An individual seeking a personal cash benefit is not eligible. Normal C.D. Schemes does not pay a stipend, pension, subsidy or instalment to a named person. If you are looking for individual money, the relevant routes are NSAP for social-security pensions, PMAY-G for a house, or MGNREGA for wage work, all of which the same department runs but under separate rules.
• Urban wards and municipal areas cannot apply, because the programme is delivered through Community and Rural Development Blocks, which by definition cover rural areas.
• Villages outside Meghalaya cannot apply, as this is a state programme funded from the Meghalaya budget.
• Proposals outside the seven notified sectors are not eligible. A proposal that does not sit within agriculture and land reclamation, health and sanitation, education, social education, animal husbandry including veterinary, industries including arts and crafts, or rural roads falls outside the head.
• Work already sanctioned under another scheme is not eligible, since duplicate funding of the same asset from two heads is not permitted.

There is no published income ceiling, age limit or caste criterion attached to Normal C.D. Schemes, because the unit of benefit is a community work rather than a person. Any website quoting an income limit for this particular head is not reflecting anything the C&RD Department has published.

How to apply for a Normal C.D. Scheme in Meghalaya

Normal C.D. Schemes has no online application portal. The route is entirely offline and runs through the block office.

1. Get the village to agree first. Hold a durbar sitting and pass a resolution describing the work the village wants, where it will be built and who will use it. In Meghalaya, most rural land is clan or community land, so also record the landowning clan's consent in the same resolution.
2. Write to the Block Development Officer of your C&RD Block. Address a plain application to the BDO, attach the durbar resolution, and state clearly which of the seven sectors the work falls under. Find your block from the department's C&RD block list on megcnrd.gov.in, for example Umsning or Jirang in Ri Bhoi, Thadlaskein or Amlarem in West Jaintia Hills, Nongstoin or Mawshynrut in West Khasi Hills.
3. Let the block officers inspect and estimate. The department states that block officers "undertake survey work, prepare the scheme with plans and estimates and so on for approval and sanction." At block level this is done by the Sub-Engineer and Section Assistant, with the Extension Officer (Agriculture) or Extension Officer (Veterinary) involved where the work is in their field.
4. Wait for the Block Development & Monitoring Committee to scrutinise it. The department's own wording is that "Each Block has a Block Development & Monitoring Committee (BDMC) to scrutinize and approve the schemes." A proposal only becomes a sanctioned scheme once the BDMC has cleared it.
5. Follow up with the block Gram Sevak for your circle. Each block is divided into circles supervised by a Gram Sevak, and that officer is the closest point of contact for a village once a work is under way.

Who runs Normal C.D. Schemes and at what level?

The Community and Rural Development Department describes a four-tier structure, and knowing which tier does what saves a lot of wasted travel.

• Secretariat. The department records that "The Secretariat deals with all the policy matters of the Government in relation to Community and Rural Development." Policy, not individual proposals, is decided here.
• Directorate. The Director "is responsible for the Planning and implementation of the Government Policies and guidelines for various development programmes." The Directorate sits at the Addl. Secretariat Building, Room No. 316, Shillong 793001.
• District. The District Rural Development Agency, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, is "responsible for implementation of different schemes" in the district, headed operationally by a Project Director, DRDA.
• Block. "The Block Development Officer is the Head of the Block Office" and is responsible for "proper and successful execution of various development works." The BDO is "assisted by a team of Officers in the field of Agriculture, A.H. Veterinary and Engineering."

A block office as staffed by the department includes the BDO, two Accountants, three Upper Division Assistants, cashiers and a typist, a Sub-Engineer, a Section Assistant, a Senior Gram Sevak, a Gram Sevak and a Gram Sevika, an Extension Officer (Agriculture) and an Extension Officer (Veterinary). The department also records that each block is divided into 15 circles, each under a Gram Sevak.

Four societies sit alongside the department and handle the bigger centrally sponsored programmes: the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), the State Rural Employment Society (SRES), the Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society (MSRLS) and the Meghalaya Society for Social Audit and Transparency (MSSAT). None of them administers Normal C.D. Schemes, so a query about a C.D. work should not be sent to them.

How do I check the status of a Normal C.D. Scheme proposal?

There is no online status tracker for Normal C.D. Schemes, and the department has not published one. Status is checked in person or in writing:

1. At the block office, ask the BDO's establishment section whether your proposal has been listed for the next Block Development & Monitoring Committee sitting.
2. Through your circle Gram Sevak, who will know whether the Sub-Engineer has completed the site survey and estimate.
3. At the DRDA office in your district headquarters, where the Project Director holds the district picture of works in progress.
4. Through a Right to Information application to the block or the Directorate, using the RTI manuals published on megcnrd.gov.in, if a written answer is not forthcoming.

Why do Normal C.D. Scheme proposals get rejected?

• The work falls outside the seven notified sectors, so it cannot be booked under this head.
• No durbar resolution or land consent, which stalls the estimate stage because the block cannot certify that the site is available.
• The same asset is already sanctioned under MGNREGA, PMAY-G or the Special Rural Works Programme.
• The estimate exceeds what the block's allocation for the year can absorb, in which case the proposal is usually carried forward rather than rejected outright.
• The proposal is addressed to the wrong office: sending a village work proposal straight to the Secretariat in Shillong, rather than to the BDO, delays it because the Secretariat handles policy.

The practical fix in almost every case is to redraft the proposal with the durbar, name the sector precisely, and resubmit through the BDO.

How to get help or raise a grievance

• Block Development Officer of your C&RD Block, first point of contact for any Normal C.D. Scheme work.
• Project Director, DRDA at your district headquarters — for escalation within the district.
• Director, Community and Rural Development, Addl. Secretariat Building, Room No. 316, Shillong 793001, East Khasi Hills; telephone 2224326, email cnrd-meg@nic.in.
• Superintending Engineer, C&RD to 8414921622, for engineering and estimate questions on a sanctioned work.
• Senior Rural Development Officer, C&RD to 9863063989.

Normal C.D. Schemes involves no application fee and no registration charge. No agent can get a village work sanctioned for a payment; the only lawful route is a durbar resolution and a written proposal to the Block Development Officer.

What could not be verified

Normal C.D. Schemes is an administrative budget head rather than a publicised citizen scheme, and the C&RD Department publishes only a short description of it. The following are not published on any Meghalaya government source and are therefore not stated on this page: the annual outlay for the head, a per-work or per-village ceiling, a cost-sharing ratio, a formal application form number, a prescribed processing timeline, and the composition of the Block Development & Monitoring Committee. There is also a discrepancy on the department's own site between the organisational-setup page, which cites 43 blocks, and the block directory, which lists 55. Confirm all of these with your Block Development Officer before relying on them.