Sources in the Rural Development Ministry said that after receiving host of complaints from the MPs, the minister has sent a letter to the PM.
The Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) a rural development programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2014, with much fanfare is fast losing its sheen. The SAGY was actually an improvement on the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), where MPs were supposed to identify and adopt a particular village each to focus on its social and cultural development, and motivate other villages as well. Out of 796 MPs from both Houses, 704 had adopted villages in phase I, but in phase II, just 164 law makers have so far come forward to identify villages. In the poll bound Uttar Pradesh (UP) out of 111 MPs (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) just 38 have adopted villages. In Maharashtra just 17 MPs have so far identified villages for adoption, out of 67 MPs. Cutting across party lines, the law makers DNA spoke to argued that the scheme was hitting them politically. "When we adopt a particular village, the nearby hamlets get annoyed, hitting our electoral fortunes," said an MP from the ruling party BJP, on the condition of anonymity. But he said the issue has been flagged with the Rural Development Minister Birender Singh to take up with the PM.
Sources in the Rural Development Ministry said that after receiving host of complaints from the MPs, the minister has sent a letter to the PM. A common complaint is that since their are no dedicated funds for this scheme, it only entails to divert funds from elsewhere to the particular village, causing heartburn in other villages. Among the options being discussed in his ministry, Singh said he had suggested to either increase the MPLADS fund or to provide Rs 50 lakh per Adarsh Gram. The MPs were supposed to identify villages by January 31. But a handful of the MPs, that include the PM who has adopted Nagepur in Arajiline block in his Varanasi constituency and Feroze Varun Gandhi who has taken up Malhipu village in Sultanpur, have adopted villages. Neither Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi or the union minister Maneka Gandhi have adopted any village in phase II. In 2014, they had adopted villages in their constituencies under the scheme.
The ministry is now looking forward to approach industries to tie up with the MPs to use CSR funding for these projects. According to sources, SAGY already has a CSR funding component, but other than Maharashtra, reliance on corporate funding has not yielded much. The SAGY had not been given any budgetary allocation. The MPs were expected to funnel money to adopted villages through the convergence of 21 ongoing schemes such as Indira Awaas Yojana for rural housing, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, and Beti Bachao Beti Padao.
But there have been success stories as well. Data available with the ministry suggests that some 283 villages had achieved 100% children immunization, 252 100% institutional delivery and 378 had achieved 100% mid day meal coverage.
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