Identify village for Adarsh Gram Yojana by November 11: Government to MPs

New Delhi: Centre has set a November 11 deadline for Members of Parliament to choose one village which they will develop as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY).

Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari has written to the parliamentarians saying they may identify a suitable gram panchayat other than their own village or that of their spouses with the aim of developing its physical and institutional infrastructure.

"At this juncture, we need to immediately identify the gram panchayat to be taken up for transformation into 'Adarsh Gram'. The identification of one gram panchayat to be developed into a model gram panchayat by 2016 may be done at the earliest.

"The identification exercise is required to be completed by November 11, 2014 positively," the letter said. The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on October 11. Gadkari said that a Lok Sabha MP has to choose a gram panchayat from within his/her constituency while a Rajya Sabha MP may pick one in the rural area of a district of his/her choice in the state from which he/she is elected.

Nominated MPs can choose a gram panchayat from the rural area of any district in the country. For urban constituencies having no gram panchayats, the MP can choose a gram panchayat from a nearby rural constituency, he said.

According to the government, the gram panchayat thus identified should have a population of 3,000-5,000 in the plains and 1,000-3,000 in the hilly, tribal and difficult areas. In districts where such unit sizes are not available, gram panchayats approximating to the desired population level may be chosen.

The government aims to get each MP to develop three Adarsh Grams by March, 2019, of which one would be achieved by 2016. Outlining his vision for the development of model villages, Modi had said, "If we have to build the nation, we have to start from the villages... if every MP transforms villages in his/her constituency into model villages, a large number of villages in the country would see holistic development".