National extension service

     The People in all the project areas of community development programme responded enthusiastically and the need for a rapid expansion of the programme to other parts of the country were urgently felt limited resources however, did not permit a rapid expansion of the C.D projects. A year later, in 1953, the National Extension Service (NES) programme was launched with the idea of having wider coverage at less cost and more people's participation. Each NES block had about 100 villages and about 65 thousand population officer (BDO) and had a number of extension officers (EDs). For the NES blocks funds were drastically reduced and the number of multipurpose village level workers was brought down to 10. NES was thought of as the agency and CD as the method to bring about socio - economic transformation of the rural people.

            It was a major development in the sphere of rural reconstruction in India since, the basic idea underlying both the CD and NES - Programmes was the same,  The  two were integrated under one agency at the centre as well as in the states Both the programmes were complementary and interwoven and ran concurrently NES viewed as the permanent set up for extension in the country and it was intended to cover the entire country with an organization for agriculture and rural development with a period of about 10 years.