PM Modi to launch Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana today

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday will launch Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana on the occasion of birth anniversary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, aims to keep the soul of rural India alive while providing people with quality access to basic amenities and opportunities to enable them to shape their own destiny.

Modi had announced the scheme during his Independence day address. Adarsh Gram Yojana aims to ensure 100 per cent access to health, education, sanitation, schools, toilets, libraries and smart schools.

It is an ambitious village development project under which each MP will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.

The goal is to develop three adarsh grams or model villages by March 2019, of which one would be achieved by 2016. Thereafter, five such adarsh grams (one per year) will be selected and developed by 2024.

Inspired by the principles and values of Mahatma Gandhi, the scheme places equal stress on nurturing values of national pride, patriotism, community spirit, self-confidence and on developing infrastructure.

The scheme is unique and transformative as it has a holistic approach towards development. It envisages integrated development of the selected village across multiple areas such as agriculture, health, education, sanitation, environment, livelihoods etc.

Far beyond mere infrastructure development, SAGY aims at instilling certain values, such as people's participation, Antyodaya, gender equality, dignity of women, social justice, spirit of community service, cleanliness, eco-friendliness, maintaining ecological balance, peace and harmony, mutual cooperation, self-reliance, local self government, transparency and accountability in public life, etc in the villages and their people so that they get transformed into models for others.

The MPs are the pivots this scheme will run on. Gram panchayat would be the basic unit for development. It will have a population of 3000-5000 in plain areas and 1000-3000 in hilly, tribal and difficult areas.

In districts where this unit size is not available, gram panchayats approximating the desirable population size may be chosen. If each MP adopts three villages, the scheme will be able to develop 2,379 gram panchayats over the next five years.

(With additional information from PTI)