Heartland Development Board

The Heartland Development Board (HDB) is an agency under the Interior Office of the Imperial Government of Tierrador tasked with the development of rural and agricultural affairs within the nation. It was founded in October 1971, after Woqal Gomez I signed into effect the merging of the Office of Rural Development, the Agricultural Regulation Board, and the Domestic Communications Agency by Crown Order on August 22, 1971. The Crown Order was ratified by the Qangreč on October 25, 1971 via committee hearings. The agency is led by its director, who is appointed by the Woqala and approved by the Qangreč. As of 2033, the current director of the HDB is Keliqa Toqola. Despite the HDB not being a Cabinet office, the director is normally still given cabinet rank, due to the significance of its existence. The HDB has its headquarters in the Qobér H. Sauga Building in Qabór. There are also twenty-five regional offices for each of the Woqalate's regions.

The HDB develops broad policies to protect the Woqalate's rural economic system, including agriculture, communications, education, wealth, infrastructure, and overall development of the regions. It fulfills this mission in conjunction with other imperial, regional/provincial, local and foreign government partners. The agency conducts rural assessments, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental, agricultural, and communication laws, in consultation with regional, Abio, and local governments. HDB enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement responsibility to Woqalate's regions and the imperially-recognized Abio Nations. The agency also works with industries and all levels of government in a wide variety of voluntary rural development programs and energy conservation efforts.

Briefly first part of the Agriculture Office, the HDB became part of the Interior Office following its establishment in March 1976. As of the fiscal year 2032, the HDB operated on a budget of approximately $11.5 billion and employed over 52,000 Heartland Development Officers, Agricultural Development Specialists, Communications Development Specialists, and other rural development personnel. The HDB's primary jurisdiction is the area known as the Tierradorian Heartland, a region of the nation mostly characterized by its vast farmland and mountainous areas, with primary focus on underdeveloped rural areas of the nation. However, it usually conducts development programs within urban areas, with the primary goal of cementing Tierrador's status as a self-sustaining, techno-agrarian nation.

History
The idea of an agency specializing in the development of rural areas in Tierrador was coined by former Qaphenć Aphío A. Woderq, after he visited the small town of Tuqal in eastern Tulangia Region in 1964, and was "visibly disgusted" with the state of the small town. Upon returning to Qabór (capital of Tierrador at the time), Woderq expressed his concern with the "clear negligence" of small rural areas, especially in the central and western regions of Tierrador, to High Woqal Pedro Gomez. Gomez had already planned to create a new government agency which focused on rural development, albeit with less power and less funding than the current HDB, however, due to the outbreaks of the Akwachee War in 1965 and the Mosquito War in 1966, the establishment of such agency was pushed to a lesser degree of priority. Following the end of both wars, Gomez and Woderq would eventually work towards their goal of creating a rural development agency. Before the HDB, there were several smaller agencies which were tasked with establishing programs pertaining to rural development. However, most of these agencies were regarded as disorganized and heavily underfunded. On April 9, 1971, Gomez met with the executive council of the nation to discuss a potential merger of already-existing government agencies, rather than establishing a new agency from scratch. Gomez feared the preceding agencies in question–the Office of Rural Development, the Agricultural Regulations Board, and the Domestic Communications Agency–would not be in favor of a new agency being created, however he was able to convince the agencies to comply with merging to create a new agency.

On August 22, 1971, Gomez proposed a Crown Order that consolidated many rural agriculture and communications development responsibilities of the imperial government under one agency, a new Heartland Development Board. This proposal included merging communications control programs from a number of departments, such as the combination of telephone programs from the Tierradorian Media Office, along with many agricultural regulation programs (such as pollution and pesticide control), from the Agricultural Office. After conducting hearings during that summer, the Crown Order was signed into effect, and the Qangreč would later approve said Crown Order. The HDB was created 90 days before it had to operate. It officially opened its doors on October 25, 1971.

1970s
Initially, the HDB was formed as a child agency of the Agriculture Office, due to its heavy focus on the agriculture sector within the Tierradorian Heartland. In 1972, the HDB's first full year of operations, it was granted a budget of $1.1 billion, along with an employee base of 6,100. At its start, the HDB was primarily an agricultural assistance agency that set goals and standards for rural areas within Tierrador. Eventually, new acts and amendments passed by the Qangreč gave the HDB its current extensive regulatory authority. The HDB played a large role in the passing of the Telecom Act of 1972, which reduced the powers of telecommunications company TK Group, in order to prevent a monopoly within the Tierradorian telecommunications sector. This allowed companies such as Yedlin Telecom and TerraTel to expand its businesses to cover all of Tierrador and offer fair and inexpensive communications plans to residents of low-income areas in the Heartland. Following this Qangreč ruling in 1973, the administrative privileges of the HDB were officially transferred from the Agriculture Office to the Interior Office, prompting a steep increase in the budget and responsibilities of the HDB.

The Qalokee River Incident in 1976 saw a freight train being derailed while it was crossing a bridge over the Qalokee River in southwestern Bogocía Region, which led to the spilling of dangerous chemicals in the river and causing contamination of several small towns' drinking water supply. This had led to a national outcry and demands for the HDB to step in. In October 1977, the HDB demanded a tribunal court jury investigation be held, as they believed that the derailment was caused by criminal negligence. Four months later, in January 1978, a tribunal court jury investigation within the Oajna Province, led by Tierradorian attorney Qaipho Benta, accused six companies of causing major water pollution in southwestern Bogocía and northern Agualaria. It was the first tribunal court jury investigation of water pollution in the area, despite evidence of it being a severe problem throughout history. The Grand Qajun of Tierrador, Hubert Krauža, held a press conference on January 18, 1978, referencing a new policy for pollution control in rural areas, with particular reference and incentive to work with the new Heartland Development Board, and announcing the filing of a lawsuit that morning by the HDB against the Qolan Chemical Board for criminal negligence, and arguing that the conductors of the train were actually under the influence of marijuana, their impairment causing them to miss a faulty wheel on the locomotive, which in turn caused the derailment and the accidental spill of several deadly chemicals into the Qalokee River near Chasaukee. Krauža, along with the HDB, filed the misdemeanor charges in Tribunal Court, alleging severe violations of the Tierradorian Waters Act of 1705.

Organization
The HDB is led by the director and the deputy director, appointed directly following nomination by the Woqala and approval from the Qangreč.

Offices
The HDB is separated into several governing offices.


 * Office of the Director
 * Office of Public Safety
 * Office of Rural Communications
 * Office of Rural Agriculture
 * Office of Rural Infrastructure
 * Office of Policy Enforcement and Compliance

Regions
The HDB maintains twenty-five regional divisions, based in the capital cities of the 25 regions of Tierrador. They were created in 1979 to further devolve power from the HDB's central headquarters in Qabór and to make it easier for rural affairs to be governed. Each regional office implements agricultural, infrastructural, and communications development for the rural areas within its preceding jurisdiction.

Barbed Wire Scandal
The Barbed Wire Mandate Scandal was a controversial political event that transpired during the 1970s and 1980s, implicating the Heartland Development Board and the influential Qangreč. Several allegations emerged suggesting that the Heartland Development Board, along with TK Group, Orixtal Communications and TerraTel, engaged in illicit activities, including bribery, to sway the Qangreč in passing a mandate requiring the upgrade from barbed wire telecommunications connections to conventional wired communications. This was done in efforts to maximize profit for those companies at the expense of many low-income rural communities, especially in the western mountain area of Tierrador. The scandal stirred public discourse, shedding light on issues of corruption and socio-economic disparity within the political landscape. Upon the mandate's implementation, significant backlash ensued, particularly in low-income rural communities where the mandated upgrade posed financial and logistical challenges. Many residents of rural communities found the transition impractical and unattainable, exacerbating existing inequalities. The scandal underscored the disparity between policy rhetoric and the lived experiences of the affected populace. Protests erupted across the rural areas of Tierrador, with citizens expressing discontent and demanding accountability from both the Heartland Development Board and the compromised Qangreč.