New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched an ambitious village development project under which each MP will adopt three villages and ensure their development.
Under the programme called the “Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana”, each MP will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.
The goal is to develop three model villages each by March 2019, of which one would be developed by 2016. Thereafter, five such villages will be selected and developed by 2024.
“We are nearly 800 MPs. If before 2019, we develop three villages each, we reach nearly 2,500 villages. If in the light of this scheme, the states also create a similar scheme for MLAs, then 6,000-7,000 more villages can be added,” said the PM while launching the project on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan.
The Prime Minister also said that if one village is developed in a block, it is also likely to have a “viral” effect and development would permeate other villages also.
Speaking about the scheme, the PM said that there is flexibility and an MP is free to choose any village. The only condition is that it should not be his own village or that of his in-laws.
Modi said he would also adopt a village in Varanasi, the constituency from where he was elected to the Lok Sabha.
“I too have to select a village for Varanasi, have received the guidelines. I will go there, discuss and decide,” Modi said as he launched his another ambitious mission.
Asking every MP to adopt a village and work for their development, Modi said: “Whichever party the MP belongs to, he or she has to keep working among people and spent lot of his time to get work done for the government.”
For the MPs elected from cities, the Prime Minister urged them to look at a village that is close to their city.
“MPs can select a village in their state…This is not a scheme about money. It is people driven and guided by people`s participation, guided by the MPs,” he said.
He said that till now the model of development being followed in the country has largely been supply driven.
“In Delhi, Lucknow or Gandhinagar, a scheme is prepared and then an attempt is made to inject it everywhere. Through this ‘Adarsh Gram’ (scheme), we want to shift from supply driven to demand driven model,” he said.
The PM also underlined the need to formulate schemes in accordance with the changing times.
“Each government has tried to make the conditions of villages better in their own unique way. Schemes must be formulated in accordance with the changing times and the speed of change must also increase,” he said.
“There are several villages that make model villages, but not all, which means that there is a lot more to be done beyond implementing government schemes,” the PM told audience at Vigyan Bhawan.
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, the PM said the ‘Father of the Nation’ always spoke about villages. “He returned to India in 1915 and began to fight for the rights of people in villages.”
Parliament should be involved with every aspect of rural development in India, insisted Modi.
“Let us take interest and create an atmosphere where every person is proud of his or her village,” added the PM.
The project aims to keep the soul of rural India alive while providing its people with quality access to basic amenities and opportunities to enable them to shape their own destiny.
