TEHRAN – Establishment licenses for 486 new village administration offices were issued over the past [Iranian calendar] year (March 2021-March 2022), Mehdi Jamalinejad, deputy minister of interior for urban and rural development, has said.

So far, 37,605 licenses have been issued to set up village administration offices across the country, and about 19 million people, who constitute 95 percent of the country’s rural population, benefited from the management and services of these institutions, he explained.

Established in 2003, Iran's Municipalities and Village Administrations Organization has so far implemented about 130,000 small and medium-scale development projects across the country's rural areas.

The organization has been set up with the aim of improving the environmental situation of villages, recognizing the deficiencies and social, economic, health, cultural, and educational needs, preparing practical plans in the mentioned fields, and presenting them to the relevant officials for necessary action, as well as encouraging the villagers not to migrate to the cities.

Village administrators are elected by the members of the Council of the village, who are elected by the people and are tasked with local management.

Out of a total of 39,465 villages in the country, which comprise about 26 percent of the national population (20.1 million), 37,118 villages have received permits to establish rural administration offices (called Dehyari).

Thus, more than 97 percent of the country's rural population lives in villages with over 20,000 households.

Since the establishment of the Municipalities and Village Administrations Organization until the Iranian calendar year 1398 (March 2019-March 2020), more than 250 trillion rials (nearly $1 billion) have been allocated to rural development.

According to Jamalinejad, about 130,000 small and medium-scale development projects have been implemented in the country's villages.

Over 900 fire stations have been built and equipped in the country's villages.

He also said that 80 percent of rural areas are equipped with waste collection systems.

FB/MG