College graduate Liu Shisen puts down roots at the grassroots to pull out poverty by the roots
Reporter Zhang Guofeng
Today, on the edge of the Mu Us Desert, in Wangshuitang Village, Fengjigou Township, Yanchi County, Ningxia, green trees shade the front and back of the village. Along the sandstorm line outside the village, caragana firmly holds down one shifting dune after another. Fields form squares, forests form networks, and the green grassland stretches as far as the eye can see.
Yet just a few years ago, Wangshuitang Village was still a backward, poverty-stricken village where yields were less than 100 jin per mu, sand swallowed good farmland, and people, poor and desperate, thought only of leaving. The change in Wangshuitang Village owes something to the efforts and sweat of college graduate village official Liu Shisen; it was won by his sincerity and dedication. In the 2013 village "two committees" election, Liu Shisen was elected deputy secretary of the Wangshuitang Village Party branch with all votes.
In order to change Wangshuitang Village's backward state, Liu Shisen completed the shift in his role as quickly as possible, seeking advice and learning from the peasant masses and village officials. He often sat for a while in villagers' homes, chatted with them about everyday matters, asked what difficulties they had, and carefully kept a log of the people's conditions.
When he found that the Wangshuitang Village office had no internet and that the "Three Rural Issues Call Center Network" was also paralyzed, he suggested that the village Party secretary and director install broadband and actively contacted relevant departments. Through efforts on many sides, on August 1, 2014, broadband was finally installed in the village office, and at the same time broadband was also installed in the homes of 25 households in the Songxinzhuang natural village. Today, the Wangshuitang Village distance education network is playing an active role.
"This year is the second year that the Songxinzhuang natural village of Wangshuitang Village has carried out high-efficiency water-saving irrigation technology. With the great attention of the Party committee and government of Fengjigou Township, county and township technical personnel have come to the village many times to guide drip irrigation technology, and the villagers are very confident about this year's corn harvest," said Wang Haoli, village director of Wangshuitang Village.
To solve the problems in the village of unstable water sources for flood irrigation, the need for specially assigned people to operate irrigation, and low labor efficiency and high costs, Liu Shisen actively sought support from higher levels and built a 30,000-cubic-meter high-efficiency water-saving irrigation reservoir in the Songxinzhuang natural village of Wangshuitang Village, benefiting 3,590 mu of cultivated land. This effectively promoted the development of modern agriculture and also brought economic benefits to the villagers.
Renovating dilapidated houses is a major livelihood project and a project that wins people's hearts. To ensure fair, just and open operation, Liu Shisen, with the strong support of the village committee, strictly implemented the procedure of "application - review and discussion - verification - approval - implementation - supervision - acceptance." Based on applications submitted by heads of households undergoing dilapidated house renovation, he took photos and registered them household by household, organized villagers to conduct reviews, and then the township government carried out investigation and verification; the results of review and verification were publicly posted, so that truly impoverished people could genuinely enjoy the warmth of the Party and the government. Up to now, Wangshuitang Village has completed the task of renovating 22 rural dilapidated houses.
Over the past three years, Liu Shisen has been moved by the villagers' simplicity and kindness, and his sincerity and warmth have likewise won praise from the masses. Liu Shisen said: "I have deeply fallen in love with this hot land of rural areas in the remote mountainous region of the west. I transferred my household registration from Jilin City to Yanchi County. I will put down roots here, live here, and devote my youth and sweat here."