Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna: The Village Development Project

After Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, which was launched on 2nd Oct 2014 for a clean India, on 11th October 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana” for clean and developed villages of rural India. This is a prestigious village development project, which focuses on the all-round development of villages, including economic, social and cultural growth and development. The PM aims to cover 2,500 villages by 2019. One of the striking and unique features of this programme, as the name suggests, is that here each Member of Parliament (MP ) will take up the responsibility of providing infrastructure and developing three villages by 2019. There are almost 800 MPs and if each of them adopts three villages, then nearly 2,500 villages can be covered by 2019. In the same manner, the State Governments should also create schemes and more and more villages can be covered under this.

Main Objective

The scheme is based on the concept of rural development of Mahatma Gandhi which revolved around creating model villages for transforming swaraj (self rule) into su-raj (good governance). The objective is to create a holistic development of all adopted villages by the MPs in all aspects —human, personal, social, economic and environmental development, including provision of basic amenities, services, security and good governance.

Features of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

The detailed blueprint of this ambitious project has been prepared by the Rural Development Ministry with the following essential features:

• Each MP should adopt a village of his choice, which should not be his own or his in-laws. This should be turned into a model village by 2016. Then for the next thee years, two more villages should be chosen and developed. After 2019, one village should be taken up every year till 2024.
• Villages should be adopted not from urban constituencies but from nearby rural areas.
• Emphasis on empowering the poor families to get rid of poverty by implementing a proper plan for every identified gram panchayat.
• Focuses on transforming villages into model villages by providing all round infrastructural development along with emphasis on gender equality, women empowerment and dignity, social justice, cleanliness, community service, peace , harmony and eco-friendliness.
• Each village will have pucca houses for homeless villagers and proper sanitation facilities.
• Each village will have smart schools with IT-enabled classrooms, e-libraries and web-based teaching. Also, each student will have universal access to education facilities up to Class X.
• The plan also aims to provide basic health care facilities to all with health card, medical examination, and total immunisation.
• Other benefits to be provided are piped drinking water, connectivity to the main road, electricity supply to all households, libraries in the village, telecom and broadband connectivity including CCTVs in public areas.
• Emphasis will also be given on e-governance.
• SAGY will ensure the provision of Aadhaar cards to all villagers.
• SAGY will also provide insurance schemes like Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana and universal access to the Public Distribution System to eligible families for social security, old-age, disability and widow pensions.
• Besides these, SAGY also lays focus on “personal development” which includes training and awareness on hygienic behaviour, physical exercise and reducing alcoholism, smoking and substance abuse.

Monitoring of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

• The project will be funded by each MP’s MPLAD fund.
• The programme also expects mutual-cooperation, local self-government, self reliance, transparency and accountability in public life.
• The MP himself or herself should guide on the creation of social mobilisation and a systematic environment in the model village.
• All planning processes of the Gram Panchayat will be guided by the District Collector.
• A specially designed capacity building programme will be created by the Union Ministry of Rural Development for proper implementation of Government functionaries at different levels including Gram Panchayats.
• At the State level, under the head of the Chief Secretary, the empowered committee will look after the relevant departments.

It is really too early to predict on the success of this yojana. The erstwhile UPA Government also launched “Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana”, which aimed at the development of villages of SC communities. This one aims at the development of all rural villages with a holistic development. Critically looking, 2,500 villages by 2019 means covering only 1% of the total 2,50,000 panchayats in India. This means that if we are going to take five years to develop 2,500 panchayat villages, then it will take many decades to cover the entire lot of villages of India. But no doubt it’s a good initiative and let us hope and pray that it becomes a success. According to a recent news report, the sports icon Sachin Tendulkar has already expressed his desire to adopt a village under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. He will adopt ‘Puttamraju Kandriga’ village in Potti Sriramulu, Nellore district, in Andhra Pradesh. Let’s hope more and more MPs will take part in this Yojana and make it a success.